The  Univezsity  of  *Uitginia 

in  the  Life  of  the  Ration 


ro 

uo 


o 


LIBRARY 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


GIFT  OK 


Ctes 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  VIRGINIA 

IN  THE 
LIFE  OF  THE  NA  TION 


THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  VIRGINIA 
IN  THE  LIFE 
OF  THE  NATION 

ACADEMIC  ADDRESSES  DELIVERED  ON  THE 
OCCASION  OF  THE  INSTALLATION  OF 
EDWIN  ANDERSON  ALDERMAN  AS  PRESIDENT 
OF  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  VIRGINIA, 
APRIL  THIRTEENTH,  YEAR  OF  OUR  LORD 
NINETEEN  HUNDRED  AND  FIVE 


FOR  THE  SISTER  UNIVERSITIES  : 

EAST  :   ARCHIBALD  CARY  COOLIDGB 

NORTH :   NICHOLAS  MURRAY  BUTLER 

SOUTH:   WALTER  BARNARD  HILL 

WEST  :   RICHARD  HENRY  JESSE 

INAUGURAL  ADDRESS  : 
EDWIN  ANDERSON  ALDERMAN 


or  THC 
(   UNIVERSITY  ) 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  VIRGINIA 

IN  THE 
LIFE  OF  THE  NA  TION 


THE   UNIVERSITY  OF  VIRGINIA 

IN  THE 
LIFE  OF  THE  NA  TION 


INVOCATION 

BY    THE    REV.   RICHARD    D.   SMART,   D.D. 

Almighty  God,  our  heavenly  Father, 
from  everlasting  to  everlasting  Thou  art 
God,  high  over  all,  blessed  for  evermore. 
We  acknowledge  Thee  as  the  source  of 
all  life  and  light  and  truth,  so  that  it  is 
in  Thee  that  we  live  and  move  and  have 
our  being.  We  pray  that  Thou  wilt 
graciously  smile  upon  us  as  we  are  here 
assembled  in  the  interest  of  higher  edu- 
cation and  of  the  highest  development 
of  the  best  that  is  in  us.  We  thank 
Thee  for  this  institution  of  learning. 
We  thank  Thee  for  the  wise  men  of  old 
who  laid  its  foundations  broad  and  deep 
and  well.  We  thank  Thee  for  the  work 


€l)e  ftmfcer^itp  of  Virginia 


it  has  accomplished,  for  the  high  ideals 
it  has  ever  held  up  before  the  people, 
and  for  the  many  illustrious  sons  who, 
having  gone  forth  from  its  walls  into  all 
the  walks  of  life,  have  rendered  high  and 
helpful  service  to  mankind.  And  now, 
O  Lord,  as  this  day  marks  a  new  depart- 
ure in  the  history  of  this  institution,  we 
invoke  Thy  special  blessings  upon  it. 
May  its  friends  far  and  near  rally  to  its 
support  as  never  before.  May  its  equip- 
ment for  the  work  required  of  it  in  the 
century  upon  which  we  are  now  entering 
be  large  and  ample.  Bless  the  great 
Commonwealth  that  fosters  it;  the  Board 
of  Visitors  that  controls  it ;  the  officers 
and  teachers  who  serve  it;  and  the  stu- 
dents who  from  time  to  time  may  seek 
instruction  within  its  walls.  May  they 
not  only  have  their  intellects  disciplined 
and  their  minds  well  stored  with  useful 


in  tJje  Kite  of  tJje  Ration 


information,  but  may  they  also  imbibe 
those  nobler  lessons  of  virtue  and  of 
truth  that  shall  make  them  wise  unto 
salvation.  Especially  do  we  invoke  Thy 
blessings,  O  Lord,  upon  Thy  servant 
who  has  been  called  to  preside  over 
the  destinies  of  this  University.  In  the 
discharge  of  the  responsible  and  deli- 
cate duties  of  this  newly  created  office 
vouchsafe  unto  him  that  wisdom  which 
cometh  down  from  above  and  is  profit- 
able to  direct.  And  so  may  this  insti- 
tution, in  a  larger  sense  than  ever 
before,  be  a  fountain,  the  streams  of 
which  shall  roll  on  broad  and  deep  and 
pure  down  through  many  generations, 
blessing  children  yet  unborn.  These 
things  we  ask  in  His  name,  who  hath 
taught  us  when  we  pray  to  say,  Our 
Father,  who  art  in  heaven,  Hallowed  be 
thy  Name.  Thy  kingdom  come.  Thy  will 


of  Virginia 


be  done  on  earth,  as  it  is  in  heaven. 
Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread.  And 
forgive  us  our  trespasses,  as  we  forgive 
those  who  trespass  against  us.  And  lead 
us  not  into  temptation;  but  deliver  us 
from  evil:  For  thine  is  the  kingdom,  and 
the  power,  and  the  glory,  for  ever  and 
ever.  Amen. 

INDUCTION    OF    THE 
PRESIDENT 

BY    THE    RECTOR,   HON.    CHARLES    PINCKNEY  JONES 

Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 
— A  growing  public  sentiment  in  favor  of 
a  change  in  the  government  of  this  Uni- 
versity caused  the  General  Assembly  of 
the  Commonwealth  to  impose  upon  the 
Rector  and  Visitors,  as  the  governing 
body,  the  duty  of  electing  a  President. 
This  sentiment  was  based  on  the  loyalty 


in  tfje  Sife  of  tfte  Ration 


and  devotion  to  the  best  interests  of  the 
University  of  all  her  friends;  and  the 
Board  of  Visitors,  after  patient  and  anx- 
ious thought  on  the  subject,  finally  con- 
cluded the  duty  assigned  it  by  the  election 
of  Dr.  Edwin  Anderson  Alderman  to  the 
high  and  responsible  trust.  We  are 
therefore  met,  on  this  anniversary  of  the 
birth  of  our  great  founder,  to  formally 
inaugurate  this  change  in  our  government, 
and  induct  Dr.  Alderman  into  office  as 
our  first  President. 

To  the  alumni  and  friends  of  the  insti- 
tution who  know  the  mode  in  which  the 
government  has  been  administered  in  the 
past  through  a  Chairman  of  the  Faculty, 
the  change  possesses  much  significance. 
After  following  the  plan  of  Mr.  Jefferson 
for  three-quarters  of  a  century,  we  have 
come  to  depart  from  that  feature  of  our 
educational  government  inaugurated  by 


of  Virginia 


him,  and  to  fall  in  line  with  our  sister 
universities  in  this  respect,  so  that  in  the 
future  we  will  have  a  single  head  devoted 
to  the  service  of  education  and  with  more 
time  to  give  to  special  interests  than  could 
possibly  have  been  given  by  the  Chair- 
man of  the  Faculty.  And  while  we  are 
carrying  into  effect  this  change,  we  are 
doing  so  with  the  hope  that  the  office 
will  be  so  administered  as  to  depart  as 
little  as  may  be  from  the  constitution 
of  Mr.  Jefferson,  and  with  the  confident 
assurance  that  it  will  be  so  administered 
as  to  change  in  no  respect  the  unwrit- 
ten law  of  honesty  and  truthfulness, 
which  are  leading,  and,  it  may  be  said, 
fundamental  features  of  our  government 
And  may  we  not  believe  that  the  change 
now  made  would  have  been  sanctioned 
by  Mr.  Jefferson  under  conditions  as 
they  now  exist  ? 


in  rtje  ilife  of  tlje  Ration 


It  only  remains  for  me,  sir,  acting 
for  the  Board  of  Visitors,  to  declare  you 
the  President  of  the  University  of  Vir- 
ginia, and  to  deliver  you  its  charter,  and 
to  pledge  to  you  the  heartiest  support 
that  the  Board  of  Visitors  can  give  you. 

You  will  now  receive  your  oath  of 
office:  "Do  you  solemnly  swear  that 
you  will  faithfully  discharge  and  perform 
all  the  duties  incumbent  upon  you  as 
President  of  the  University  of  Virginia, 
according  to  the  best  of  your  ability,  so 
help  you  God?" 

The    President:   "I  do." 

RESPONSE  OF  THE    PRESIDENT 

I  accept  the  Presidency  of  this  Uni- 
versity, Mr.  Rector,  with  humility  and 
yet  with  pride.  Sustained  and  strength- 
ened by  the  counsel  and  co-operation  of 


ftnitoergitp  of  Virginia 


the  Board  of  Visitors,  of  my  colleagues 
of  the  Faculty,  of  the  sons  of  this  Uni- 
versity, and  of  good  citizens  everywhere, 
I  undertake  this  task  with  hope  and 
courage.  To  obey  its  statutes;  to  respect 
its  ancient  spirit;  to  maintain  its  lofty 
ideals ;  to  seek  with  patience  the  laws 
of  its  growth ;  to  give  to  its  service, 
with  gladness,  whatever  strength  I  have; 
all  this  I  shall  seek  to  do.  By  God's 
help,  I  will. 

FOR  THE  FACULTY 

BY    PROFESSOR    FRANCIS    HENRY    SMITH 

It  has  perhaps  been  observed  that  Vir- 
ginians from  this  section,  when  speaking 
in  public — whatever  their  theme  may  be 
— rarely  close  without  swerving  toward 
Monticello  and  circulating  about  Thomas 
Jefferson.  That  eminent  man  reminds  us 


in  tfte  Hife  of  tfje  Ration 


of  a  giant  planet  that  captures  every  comet 
and  meteor  which  dashes  into  its  sphere. 

Surely,  however,  on  this  day  and  at 
this  place,  it  is  natural  that  our  thoughts 
should  turn  to  him  of  whom  our  country- 
men everywhere  are  thinking.  A  few 
years  since  one  of  my  colleagues  at  a 
Faculty  meeting  said  that,  in  all  but  the 
name,  Mr.  Jefferson  was  President  of  the 
University  of  Virginia.  Indeed,  it  looks 
so.  From  his  aerie  on  yonder  mountain 
he  watched  the  progress  of  these  build- 
ings. In  a  room  near  by  is  the  telescope 
he  is  said  to  have  used.  If  he  saw  any- 
thing wrong,  tradition  says,  a  gallop  of 
twenty  minutes  brought  him  to  the  spot. 
He  searched  this  and  other  lands  for  his 
Faculty,  inviting  Ticknor  from  Boston, 
Cooper  from  Charleston,  and,  I  believe, 
Priestley  from  Pennsylvania,  He  main- 
tained close  personal  and  social  relations 


ftnitoergitp  of  Virginia 


with  the  professors  and  leading  students. 
He  conducted  the  University's  corre- 
spondence with  learned  men  like  Dupont, 
of  Delaware,  and  Barlow,  of  Woolwich. 
He  was  mediator  between  the  University 
and  the  Legislature  and  people  of  Vir- 
ginia. 

After  an  interval  of  eighty  years,  it 
seemed  wise  to  the  General  Assembly  and 
to  the  alumni,  to  the  Board  of  Visitors 
and  to  the  Faculty,  that  the  University 
should  again  have  a  leader,  with  nothing 
to  do  but  to  lead.  Virginia  could  offer  no 
higher  honor  to  any  man  than  to  invite 
him  to  succeed  her  great  son.  The  office 
of  President  was  created,  and  the  Board, 
after  two  years  of  patient  search,  selected 
for  its  first  occupant  a  son  of  the  South, 
devoted  to  the  South,  and  at  the  same 
time  an  American  with  sympathies  as 
broad  as  our  great  land.  After  a*  pleas- 

16 


in  tlje  nift  of  tfyt  Ration 


ant  association  with  him  for  six  months, 
filled  with  new  inspiration  and  hope,  the 
Faculty  heartily  and  unanimously  ratifies 
the  selection  of  the  Board. 

On  this  impressive  occasion  the  Faculty 
might  offer  many  subjects  of  congratula- 
tion. Time  allows  us  only  to  mention 
two. 

In  the  first  place,  the  Faculty  congratu- 
lates the  University,  and  you,  Mr.  Presi- 
dent, that  you  do  not  come  to  us  to  take 
charge  of  a  sickly  or  dying  institution. 
They  rejoice,  as  you  rejoice,  that  Virginia 
has  not  called  you  here  to  raise  the  dead. 
If  the  testimony  of  one  who  has  been 
here  for  many  years,  and  has  known  the 
University  in  the  old  days  and  now  in 
the  new  days,  may  be  received,  the  insti- 
tution had  never  been  in  a  more  vigorous 
condition  than  on  that  bright  day  when 
you  came  to  us.  Her  Faculty  and  stu- 

17 


€Jje  ftnitoer^itp  of  Bitginia 


dents  were  more  than  doubled  in  number. 
Her  halls  were  filled  with  a  company  of 
young  men  who,  in  manliness,  loyalty  to 
truth  and  honor,  devotion  to  and  success 
in  study,  were  not  unworthy  successors  of 
those  fine  fellows,  often  their  fathers  and 
grandfathers,  who  brightened  these  arcades 
fifty  years  ago.  Our  equipment  in  libra- 
ries, apparatus,  laboratories,  and  buildings 
generally  was  better  than  ever ;  more  than 
all  this  the  University  had  a  larger  num- 
ber of  devoted  alumni  and  was  nearer  to 
the  people  of  Virginia  than  ever  before. 
In  the  promising  future  and  the  enlarged 
possibilities  which  your  coming,  Mr.  Pres- 
ident, has  opened  to  us,  may  we  not  re- 
joice with  you  that  you  head  a  column 
whose  faces  are  already  turned  toward 
the  morning? 

In  the  second  place,  the  Faculty  would 
congratulate  the  University,  and  yourself, 

i3 


in  tfje  Eife  of  tfte  Ration 


that  you  come  from  North  Carolina.  Our 
hearts  grow  a  little  warmer  at  the  men- 
tion of  a  name  with  which  Virginia  has 
been  bound  in  many  tender  memories. 
These  two  States  have,  side  by  side, 
passed  through  bright  days  and  dark 
days.  Virginia  sacredly  keeps  the  dust 
of  many  of  Carolina's  brave  boys,  and  her 
living  sons  fill  places  of  honor  and  trust 
among  us  to  our  great  advantage.  We 
are  proud  of  her  grand  mountains,  her 
noble  forests,  her  sparkling  rivers,  and 
broad  savannahs,  possessed  by  a  people 
worthy  of  so  beautiful  a  home — a  gallant 
race,  and  one  which  has  ever  been  among 
the  foremost  in  peace  and  in  war.  We 
remember  that  within  her  borders  was 
born  the  first  white  child  of  this  great 
land,  and,  as  was  fitting  in  what  was  to 
be  a  Southern  State,  that  child  was  a 
girl,  and  her  name  was  Virgina,  North 


of  Virginia 


Carolina,  like  Massachusetts,  was  then  a 
part  of  Virginia.  May  they  always  be 
united  in  feeling  and  in  friendship,  if  not 
in  name.  In  1728  Colonel  William  Byrd 
drew  what  he  called  "the  dividing  line 
between  Virginia  and  North  Carolina." 
If  that  dividing  line  exists  to-day  except 
as  a  geographical  fiction,  may  your  com- 
ing to  us  help  to  obliterate  it  finally  and 
forever. 

It  only  remains  to  say,  Mr.  President, 
that  with  regard  to  the  future  the  Fac- 
ulty, I  am  sure,  will  promise  you  two 
things,  both  of  which  they  believe  to  be 
dear  to  your  heart. 

In  the  first  place,  they  promise  to 
maintain  at  its  old  level  and  standard 
the  faithful  work  done  in  these  lecture 
rooms.  They  know  that  this  quiet, 
unostentatious  labor  does  not  arrest  the 
public  eye,  but  they  believe  that  it  is 


in  tfje  Sife  of  tfte  Ration 


their  chief  business  here.  Not  more 
surely  do  the  architectural  glories  of  a 
great  building  rest  upon  and  owe  their 
permanency  to  the  courses  of  masonry 
hidden  out  of  sight  below  the  soil, 
than  do  the  rank  and  fame  of  this 
University  depend  at  last  upon  the  good 
work  done  day  by  day  in  her  class- 
rooms. How  dreary  is  this  daily  grind 
to  a  teacher  who  is  only  a  hireling; 
but  to  him  who  values  aright  the  priv- 
ilege and  responsibility  of  molding  these 
young  lives,  the  dull  routine  loses  its 
tedium  and  becomes  divine.  The  Fac- 
ulty promise  you  that  this  prime  part 
of  their  duty,  including  interest  in  all 
that  goes  to  make  up  our  internal  life, 
shall  be  loyally  performed. 

They  recognize,  however,  that  a  new 
day  has  arisen  upon  our  land,  and  that 
an  American  university  is  no  longer  a 


ftnifcergitp  of  Virginia 


local  institution,  but  an  important  factor 
in  our  national  life.  Universities  were 
once  cloisters,  beautiful  within,  but  frown- 
ing without,  training  their  members 
away  from  and  not  into  society.  Now 
their  quadrangles  are  open  to  the  light 
and  air;  and  the  pulses  of  the  national 
life  invade  and  thrill  all  their  recesses. 
The  universities  of  our  country  belong 
to  a  real  union,  though  with  an  unwrit- 
ten constitution.  What  happens  to  one 
concerns  all.  When  a  fire  sweeps  away 
all  that  fire  can  destroy,  messages  of 
sympathy  and  offers  of  help  burden 
every  mail.  Fifty  years  ago  such  a 
scene  as  this  around  us  now  was 
unknown.  The  Faculty  feels  that  in 
this  modern  extension  of  a  university's 
external  relations  and  duties  you  will 
have  a  burden  upon  you  almost  too 
great  for  any  man.  They  respectfully 


in  tfje  Hife  of  tfte  Ration 


offer  you  such  co-operation  within  their 
ability  as  you  may  honor  them  by 
requesting. 

In  conclusion,  the  Faculty  express  to 
you,  Mr.  President,  the  hope,  rising  to 
a  prayer,  that  your  future  leadership 
may  be  as  successful  as  the  beginning 
of  it  has  been  auspicious. 

FOR    SISTER    UNIVERSITIES    OF 
THE    EAST 

BY    PROFESSOR     ARCHIBALD     GARY    COOLIDGE,   OF 
HARVARD    UNIVERSITY 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  —  You  have 
been  listening  to  the  words  of  your 
nearer  brethren,  to  the  Governor  of  the 
State,  the  representatives  of  the  Faculty 
and  of  the  alumni  of  your  own  Uni- 
versity. They  have  dwelt  in  eloquent 
tones  on  the  loftiness  of  her  ideals,  on 


Ctnifcer#itp  of  Virginia 


the  nobility  of  her  achievement,  and  on 
the  manifold  service  which  she  has 
rendered  to  this  State,  to  the  South,  to 
the  whole  country.  But  the  voices  that 
should  testify  in  her  praise  are  not 
merely  those  of  her  own  children.  Her 
name  is  known  far  and  wide,  and  her 
influence  has  affected  many  who  have 
had  no  claim  to  direct  connection  with 
her.  It  is  meet,  therefore,  that  on  an 
occasion  like  the  present  the  sister  uni- 
versities from  near  and  far  should  send 
their  message  of  good-will  and  rejoicing; 
and  to  me  has  fallen  the  high  honor  of 
being  the  first  to  speak  in  a  greeting 
in  the  name  of  the  universities  of  the 
East,  many  of  which  are  among  the 
oldest  in  the  land.  It  is  true  that  I  am 
but  the  insufficient  substitute  of  the  man 
who  more  fittingly  than  any  other  could 
convey  to  you  this  greeting.  I  would 


in  tfje  aife  of  tlje  Ration 


that  it  might  reach  you  from  the  lips 
of  President  Eliot,  of  Harvard,  whose 
own  character  and  position  would  give 
additional  weight  to  the  words.  For 
more  than  thirty  years  he  has  guided 
and  directed  the  institution  committed  to 
his  care;  he  has  met  with  bitter  oppo- 
sition as  well  as  unsparing  criticism; 
he  has  changed  methods  whose  value 
time  appeared  to  have  consecrated ;  he 
has  risked  experiments  that  were  pro- 
nounced the  height  of  rashness.  And 
now  that  he  has  won  the  day,  that  his 
place  is  assured  among  the  foremost 
names  in  the  history  of  American  educa- 
tion, it  is  he  that  should  be  here  to 
declare  what  not  only  Harvard,  but  all  our 
Eastern  universities  feel  about  their  sister 
of  Virginia.  Unavoidable  absence  in 
Europe  has  prevented  him  from  appear- 
ing in  your  midst ;  still  much  as  this  is 


€l)e  Ctnifcergitp  of  Virginia 


to  be  regretted,  at  least  it  has  the  advan- 
tage that  I  can  bear  witness  with  a 
freedom  that  would  be  impossible  for 
him  as  to  what  can  be  accomplished  by 
the  right  college  president,  what  a  power 
for  good  he  may  be  in  the  community, 
and  how  much  he  can  add  to  the 
strength  of  his  institution,  be  it  ever  so 
much  attached  to  the  methods  under 
which  it  has  long  prospered,  be  it  ever 
so  justly  proud  of  its  traditions. 

Even  to  the  University  of  Virginia 
time  brings  its  necessary  revolutions. 
The  truth  is  eternal,  but  the  ways  in 
which  it  should  be  taught  may  vary 
from  age  to  age,  and  no  system  is  so 
sanctified  by  its  triumphs  in  the  past  as 
to  be  beyond  the  need  of  change  to 
meet  changed  conditions  in  the  future. 
You  have  recognized  that  the  moment 
has  come  when  without  sacrificing  any 

26 


in  tfte  nift  of  tfte  Ration 


of  that  spirit  which  has  made  your  Uni- 
versity what  she  is,  it  has  been  deemed 
best  to  modify  her  organization,  to  cen- 
tralize her  control,  and  to  add  to  her 
executive  efficiency,  so  that  she  may  still 
better  play  her  part  in  molding  the 
thought  of  this  rapidly  growing  nation. 
At  this  crucial  point  in  her  destinies  it 
befits  her  sister  universities  to  wish  her 
Godspeed.  Speaking  in  the  name  of 
those  of  the  East,  I  can  assure  you  that 
we  have  not  failed  to  appreciate  what 
she  has  achieved  and  what  she  repre- 
sents to-day. 

More  than  a  generation  before  the 
University  of  Virginia  was  founded,  Yale 
and  Harvard  had  already  shown  their 
estimation  of  the  man  that  was  to  be 
her  founder  by  conferring  upon  him 
their  degrees  of  Doctor  of  Laws,  the 
highest  honor  which  it  was  in  their 

27 


€Jje  ttnifoer^itp  of  Bitginia 


power  to  bestow.  Many  years  after- 
wards, in  1819,  Mr.  George  Ticknor, 
the  well-known  historian  of  Spanish  liter- 
ature, then  teaching  in  Cambridge,  wrote 
to  Mr.  Jefferson  about  his  favorite  pro- 
ject, as  follows:  "I  rejoice  in  it,  not 
only  disinterestedly,  as  a  means  of  pro- 
moting knowledge  and  happiness,  but 
selfishly,  as  the  means  of  exciting  by 
powerful  and  dangerous  rivalship  the 
emulation  of  our  college  at  the  North." 
And  in  our  colleges  we  can  echo  these 
words  to  this  hour. 

All  our  universities  are  striving  with 
limited  resources  to  do  great  things. 
Each  in  her  own  way  is  following  out 
her  ideals  and  trying  to  the  best  of  her 
abilities  to  train  her  children  and  to 
inspire  them  to  live  for  something  higher 
than  themselves.  In  this  community  of 
effort  each  has  taken  her  share  and  has 

28 


in  tf>e  Hife  of  tije  Ration 


deserved  our  gratitude.  In  the  minds 
of  her  sisters,  the  University  of  Vir- 
ginia has  particularly  stood  for  two  prin- 
ciples, one  of  them  academic,  though 
based  partly  on  moral  grounds,  the 
other  moral  alone. 

At  the  present  day  what  is  termed 
the  elective  system  of  studies  has  found 
its  way  in  one  form  or  another  into 
most  of  our  higher  institutions  of  learn- 
ing ;  it  has  begun  to  penetrate  into  the 
schools,  and  it  has  almost  threatened 
the  kindergartens.  This  liberty  of  choice, 
which  at  times  can  degenerate  into 
license,  has  now  become  an  educational 
commonplace.  We  argue  about  the 
question  of  more  or  less,  of  the  appli- 
cability of  the  system  under  a  given 
set  of  circumstances,  of  the  measures 
that  shall  insure  its  more  judicious  use. 
But  the  idea  has  lost  all  novelty  for 

29 


of  Virginia 


us.  People  no  longer  even  stop  to  ask 
where  it  came  from.  And  yet,  when 
eighty  years  ago  the  University  of  Vir- 
ginia was  founded  on  a  basis  broader 
than  that  of  any  other  college  in  the 
country,  the  elective  system,  which  you 
alone  at  that  early  day  dared  to  intro- 
duce, was,  indeed,  a  startling  innovation, 
one  that  long  could  find  but  few  imi- 
tators. Verily,  it  must  have  caused 
much  shaking  of  the  head  among  the 
wiseacres,  who  believed  that  for  a  path 
to  be  straight  it  must  be  narrow,  and 
that  the  way  of  learning  which  they 
had  followed  themselves  was  the  only 
proper  one  along  which  to  guide  the 
footsteps  of  others.  Time  has  vindicated 
your  wisdom  and  the  foresight  of  your 
founder.  The  principle  for  which  you 
contended  has  become  a  common  her- 
itage. You  have  shown  that  a  broad 

30 


in  tfje  3tife  of  tfje  jjlation 


road  to  knowledge  need  not  be  an  easy 
one,  for  you  have  kept  your  standards 
so  high  that  you  have  discouraged  many 
an  applicant  who  would  gladly  have 
won  your  degree  if  it  could  have  been 
obtained  at  any  other  cost  than  that  of 
long  and  patient  toil.  All  this  we  of 
the  sister  universities  appreciate — per- 
haps not  without  jealousy. 

There  is,  moreover,  another  principle 
which  we  who  live  at  a  distance  asso- 
ciate with  the  University  of  Virginia. 
High  as  she  has  put  knowledge  as  her 
ideal,  she  has  put  something  else  higher 
still.  She  has  recognized  from  the 
beginning  that  her  institution  which  has 
charge  of  youth,  to  mold  them  for  after- 
life, fulfils  but  a  part  of  its  duty  if  it 
ministers  merely  to  their  intellects.  The 
distinguishing  mark  of  its  graduates 
should  be  not  only  learning,  but  char- 
si 


ftttitoergitp  of  Virginia 


acter.  That  they  should  be  gentlemen 
before  scholars.  This  truth,  which  in 
our  modern  striving  for  efficiency  some- 
times appears  to  be  dropping  into  the 
background,  has  never  been  forgotten 
here. 

Who  is  there  in  the  United  States 
who  knows  of  the  University  of  Vir- 
ginia and  does  not  think  of  her  as  the 
home  of  the  honor  system,  the  priceless 
possession  of  which  others  may  well  be 
envious?  To  you  it  seems  as  natural 
as  the  air  you  breathe.  To  those  less 
fortunate  in  this  respect  it  remains,  even 
if  different  conditions  make  it  difficult 
of  attainment,  an  ideal,  an  encourage- 
ment toward  a  better  state  of  things 
in  the  future.  This  is  well,  for  never 
in  our  history  has  there  been  a  greater 
need  of  a  steadfast  maintenance  of  the 
principles  of  character  for  which  you 

32 


in  tfyt  2Ufe  of  tlje  Ration 


have  stood  with  such  noble  results.  In 
this  day  of  triumphant  materialism,  when 
faiths  are  rambling  and  nothing  goes 
unquestioned,  when  success  at  any  price 
is  the  one  achievement  that  seems  to 
appeal  to  a  large  portion  of  the  com- 
munity, when  consciences  are  weakened 
by  casuistry,  when  simplicity  is  looked 
upon  as  foolishness,  and  when  the 
almighty  dollar  tends  openly  or  insid- 
iously to  enslave  us  all,  may  the  Uni- 
versity of  Virginia  with  an  ever-enlarged 
sphere  of  influence  stand  as  she  always 
has  stood,  for  the  principle  of  the  Scotch 
poet,  "The  man's  the  gowd  for  a' that." 


33 


€lje  CJnitoer^itp  of  Birgiuia 


FOR    SISTER    UNIVERSITIES    OF 
THE    NORTH 

BY    PRESIDENT    NICHOLAS    MURRAY    BUTLER,    OF 
COLUMBIA    UNIVERSITY 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  —  One  of  the 
most  charming  of  the  shorter  Dialogues 
of  Plato  has  for  its  subject  friendship. 
After  subtle  and  amusing  discussions,  you 
will  remember,  Socrates  and  his  two 
young  friends  profess  themselves  unable 
to  discover  what  is  a  friend !  If  fools 
may  rush  in  where  angels  fear  to  tread, 
shall  we  not  say  that  intimate  association, 
complete  confidence,  and  intellectual  sym- 
pathy are  the  sure  bases  of  friendship 
between  men?  Then  are  we  met  to-day 
— some  of  us,  I  know,  many  of  us,  no 
doubt — to  hail  a  friend,  to  bid  him  God- 
speed, and  to  stand  at  his  side  while  he 
publicly  consecrates  himself  to  the  service 
of  an  ideal.  And  than  that  ideal  there 

34 


in  t&e  Slife  of  tfte  Ration 


is  none  loftier  or  more  noble.  It  is  the 
service  of  truth  and  of  mankind,  sur- 
rounded by  all  the  uplift,  all  the  vigor, 
and  all  the  opportunity  of  our  American 
democracy. 

The  human  brain  has  conceived  no 
finer  career  than  that  offered  by  a  uni- 
versity in  a  democracy.  No  longer  do 
universities,  however  beautiful  their  fab- 
ric, content  themselves  with  "  whispering 
from  their  towers  the  last  enchantments 
of  the  Middle  Age,"  for  they  must  busily 
explain  to  a  new  age  the  manifold  en- 
chantments of  its  own  making.  No  long- 
er do  universities,  however  ancient  their 
traditions,  carefully  shun  the  practical,  for 
they  must  ceaselessly  teach  that  the  truly 
practical  is  but  the  embodiment  of  those 
everlasting  principles  which  have  been 
since  the  world  began.  The  shackles, 
too,  are  gone — the  shackles  theologic,  the 

35 


of  Birginia 


shackles    philosophic,    the   shackles   scien- 
tific.    The  truth  has  made  us  free. 

Our  political  liberty  and  our  university 
freedom  grew  up  side  by  side.  The  same 
promptings  of  the  spirit  that  brought  to 
pass  the  one  gave  us  also  the  other.  It 
is  worth  minding,  too,  that  it  was  not 
blind  passion,  not  untamed  and  reckless 
force,  but  reflective  thought  that  sowed 
the  seeds  of  both.  Moreover,  political 
liberty  and  university  freedom  have  this 
in  common — the  making  of  men.  Tyr- 
anny and  censored  thinking  may  con- 
ceivably make  a  man  or  two  now  and 
then,  but  they  could  never  make  men. 
And  men,  real  men,  with  disciplined 
minds,  with  finely  formed  and  tempered 
characters,  with  the  power  to  grow  by 
serving,  are  the  best  product  of  the  ages; 
for  with  our  political  liberty  and  our  uni- 
versities does  freedom  exist. 

36 


in  tfte  Hife  of  tfte  Ration 


Consider  for  a  moment  what  it  is  that 
our  democracy  demands  of  its  universi- 
ties. It  demands  a  detachment  which 
judges  fairly  without  an  aloofness  that 
fails  to  sympathize.  It  demands  a  pro- 
gressiveness  which  presses  forward  with- 
out a  pace  that  leaves  appreciation 
breathless.  It  demands  a  scholarship 
which  is  solid  and  sure  without  a 
pedantry  that  is  sterile  and  suffocating. 
It  demands  a  historic  sense  which  inter- 
prets the  present  by  the  past,  without 
an  ancestor-worship  that  bows  the  head 
in  contemplative  awe.  It  demands  a 
catholicity  of  spirit  which  bars  no  excel- 
lence without  a  superficial  sentimentality 
that  stops  short  of  having  convictions. 
Out  of  these  elements  is  the  atmosphere 
of  a  university  compounded — detachment, 
progressiveness,  scholarship,  historic  sense, 
catholicity.  Is  it  possible  for  a  democ- 


37 


anibergitp  of  Virginia 


racy  to  pay  too  much  honor  to  its  uni- 
versities? What  life  is  better  than  a  life 
which  helps  a  university  on  its  way  ? 

It  is  trite  to  say  that  universities  are 
among  the  oldest  of  human  institutions, 
yet  it  is  worth  repeating  now  and  then. 
Universities  are  older  than  parliamentary 
government,  older  even  than  our  familiar 
spoken  tongues ;  they  are  but  a  little 
younger  than  the  Roman  law  and  the 
Roman  Church.  Stately,  then,  they  are, 
and  wise  with  watching  many  men  and 
many  moods,  as  well  as  useful  and 
skilful,  too,  both  to  inquire  and  to  teach. 
In  the  beginning  the  universities  never 
doubted  the  validity  of  their  method ;  it 
was  an  all-conquering  syllogistic  logic. 
To-day  the  universities  are  little  given 
to  doubt  the  validity  of  that  scientific 
method  which  has  displaced  the  syllo- 
gistic. It  may  be  well  for  the  confident 

38 


in  tfte  Xife  of  tfje  Ration 


modern  to  remember  the  errors  of  the 
equally  confident  scholar  of  the  Middle 
Age  and  to  profit  by  his  example,  if 
possible.  If,  as  Socrates  said,  an  unex- 
amined  life  is  not  worth  living,  then 
surely  an  uncriticised  method  abounds 
in  danger.  The  university  that  does  not 
persistently  examine  the  validity  of  its 
method;  that  does  not  question  its  assump- 
tions ;  that  does  not,  in  other  words,  pay 
to  philosophy  its  just  and  necessary  due, 
will  not  remain  a  university  long. 

To  a  university  in  a  democracy  you 
come,  old  friend,  as  counselor  and  guide. 
The  task  is  not  a  new  one  to  your 
head  and  hand.  Yonder  in  the  old  North 
State,  and  across  the  mountains  in  the 
Cresent  City,  where  the  mighty  father 
of  waters  halts  for  a  moment  before 
ending  his  winding  course,  you  have 
taken  the  reins  and  driven  skilfully  the 


39 


ftnifcergitp  of  Itoginia 


chariot  of  scholarship  and  of  service. 
To-day  the  scene  is  new.  Here  are  fine 
traditions,  noble  ideals,  brilliant  achieve- 
ment. May  the  passing  years  bring 
only  glory  to  the  nation's  University 
that  is  set  in  the  Old  Dominion's  crown, 
and  which  bears  her  splendid  name,  and 
only  happiness  and  honor  to  the  Presi- 
dent to  whom  to-day  with  high  hope 
and  sincere  affection  we  bid  Godspeed. 

FOR    SISTER    UNIVERSITIES    OF 
THE    SOUTH 

BY    CHANCELLOR    WALTER     BARNARD     HILL,    OF    THE 
UNIVERSITY    OF    GEORGIA 

Mr.  President: — Assuming  that  the 
geographical  idea  has  had  some  influ- 
ence in  the  making  of  the  program  for 
this  auspicious  occasion,  I  shall  take  the 
liberty  of  differentiating  my  congratula- 

40 


in  tfte  fUfe  of  tfte  Ration 


tions  from  those  of  others  upon  the 
installation  of  your  new  President  by 
claiming  the  privilege  of  speaking  as 
the  representative  of  the  South.  Unde- 
terred, though,  I  confess,  not  unabashed, 
by  this  great  fanfare  and  this  august 
presence,  I  shall  speak  without  reserve 
of  him,  and  in  a  sense  to  him,  of  the 
affection  of  his  brothers  in  the  work 
of  Southern  education — an  affection  called 
forth  by  his  inimitable  personal  charm, 
his  great  gifts  of  intellect,  scholarship, 
and  eloquence,  his  pure  and  lofty  char- 
acter. Speaking  in  this  intimate  way, 
I  am  but  one  among  the  thousands 
that  love  him,  and  whose  prayers  will 
"  rise  like  a  fountain  for  him  day  and 
night,"  that  he  may  here  work  out  in 
conspicuous  realization  the  high  ideal  of 
a  great  university — an  ideal  which  he, 
when  taking  up  elsewhere  years  ago 


€f)e  anifcer^itp  of  Virginia 


the     duties     of    a     university     president, 
pictured    in    these    glowing    words: 

"My  desire  would  have  it  a  place 
where  there  is  always  a  breath  of  free- 
dom in  the  air;  where  a  sound  and 
various  learning  is  taught  heartily,  with- 
out sham  or  pretense;  where  the  life 
and  teachings  of  Jesus  Christ  furnish 
forth  the  ideal  of  right  living  and  true 
manhood;  where  manners  are  gentle, 
and  courtesies  daily  multiply  between 
teacher  and  taught;  where  all  classes 
and  conditions  and  beliefs  are  welcome, 
and  men  may  rise  in  earnest  striving 
by  the  right  of  merit;  where  wealth  is 
no  prejudice  and  poverty  no  shame; 
where  honorable  labor,  even  rough  labor 
of  the  hands,  is  glorified  by  high  pur- 
pose and  strenuous  desire  for  the  clearer 
air  and  the  larger  view;  where  there  is 
a  will  to  serve  all  high  ends  of  a  great 

42 


in  tfje  Hife  of  tlje  Ration 


State  struggling  up  out  of  ignorance 
into  general  power;  where  men  are 
trained  to  observe  closely,  to  imagine 
vividly,  to  reason  accurately,  and  to  have 
about  them  some  humility  and  some 
toleration;  where,  finally,  truth  shining 
patiently  like  a  star  bids  us  advance, 
and  we  will  not  turn  aside." 

When  I  said,  Mr.  President,  that  I 
took  the  liberty  of  assuming  that  I  rep- 
resented the  South,  I  used  the  phrase  in 
its  widest  and  most  cosmopolitan  mean- 
ing. In  1717,  when  Sir  Robert  Mont- 
gomery applied  to  the  King  of  England 
for  a  grant  of  lands  between  the  rivers 
Savannah  and  Altamaha,  to  be  named 
Azalia,  he  issued  a  prospectus  to  attract 
colonists — a  document  which  might  give 
points  even  to  Wall  Street  promoters — in 
which  he  called  attention  to  the  fact  that 
the  new  territory  was  "in  the  same  par- 

43 


€lje  ftnifcergitp  of  Virginia 


allel  as  Palestine,  and  pointed  out  by 
God's  own  choice."  This  prospectus  is 
a  warrant  respectable  in  its  antiquity,  if 
not  in  its  modesty,  for  claiming  credit 
for  Southerners  for  all  that  is  achieved 
within  our  parallels  of  latitude  around 
the  globe.  The  belt  of  earth  correspond- 
ing to  the  South  makes  Moses,  as  Bishop 
Candler,  of  Georgia,  loves  to  say,  "one 
of  the  first  Southern  gentlemen."  It  takes 
in  Greece,  and  gives  us  for  Southerners 
Homer,  Plato,  Aristotle,  and  Alexander 
the  Great.  It  takes  in  the  southern  end 
of  Italy,  and  a  slight  curve  of  the  line 
permissible  to  one  who  is  constructing  a 
theory,  as  it  is  to  the  maker  of  a  railroad 
map,  brings  in  all  of  that  wondrous  land, 
adding  to  our  glories  Caesar,  Virgil,  and 
Dante.  It  includes  the  birthplace  of  Na- 
poleon, though  we  do  not  claim  Napoleon 
as  a  typical  Southern  gentleman.  It 


in  tlje  Siife  of  tlje  Ration 


comprises  Japan,  and  while  some  people 
have  been  mystified  at  the  marvelous 
development  of  the  Flowery  Kingdom, 
we  have  had  the  key  to  the  fact  in  the 
advantage  of  its  southern  climate.  Great 
Britain  is  apparently  alien  to  this  clime, 
but  the  exception  is  only  apparent,  for 
what  is  it  that  has  made  possible  the 
climate  and  thereby  made  possible  the 
civilization  of  England?  It  is  that  south- 
ern gulf  stream,  that  "river  of  the  ocean," 
as  your  own  Maury  has  called  it — "  that 
wandering  summer  of  the  seas;"  so  that 
Englishmen  are  only  Southerners  at  long 
distance — a  theory  which  gives  us  Shake- 
speare, Milton,  and  Tennyson,  Chatham, 
Burke,  and  Gladstone. 

In  the  South,  then,  have  dwelt,  if  you 
have  followed  me  in  this  excursion  around 
the  globe,  the  Hebrew  people,  whose  gift 
to  the  world  was  the  idea  of  holiness; 

45 


of  Virginia 


the  Greeks,  whose  gift  to  the  world  has 
been  the  idea  of  art;  the  Romans,  whose 
gift  to  the  world  was  the  idea  of  law ;  and 
the  Anglo-Saxons  (by  courtesy  of  their 
hypothesis),  whose  gift  to  the  world  is 
liberty.  These  are  large  inclusions,  I 
admit,  but  I  avoid  insistence  on  these 
"Alabama  claims,"  and  hasten  on  to  one 
conclusion  which  I  know  will  pass  un- 
challenged, and  that  is,  in  Dr.  Alderman's 
noble  vision  of  the  University,  and  I 
trust  he  will  forgive  me  for  saying  in 
the  heart  and  soul  of  the  seer,  there 
have  entered  the  highest  and  best  of  all 
the  inspirations  of  the  Hebrew  ethical 
ideal,  of  Greek  culture  and  beauty,  of 
Roman  administration,  and  Anglo-Saxon 
freedom. 

Speaking  on  behalf  of  the  other  insti- 
tutions of  learning  in  the  South,  I  wish 
to  say  that  we  recognize  the  strategic 

46 


in  tfje  £ife  of  tlje  Ration 


position  of  the  University  of  Virginia,  its 
unique  situation,  its  peculiar  national  rela- 
tion, and  its  leadership.  Endeavoring  to 
make  plain  the  spirit  of  this  recognition, 
I  have  recourse  to  one  of  the  noblest 
orations  of  American  eloquence,  an  ad- 
dress delivered  by  Hon.  James  C.  Carter, 
of  New  York,  on  the  occasion  of  the 
dedication  of  the  new  buildings  of  the 
University,  June,  1898.  I  may  say  here, 
in  parenthesis,  that  the  University  of 
Virginia  has,  in  my  judgment,  received 
no  more  splendid  tribute  in  all  its  history 
than  its  recognition  in  the  last  will 
and  testament  of  that  great  man,  who 
stood,  in  the  esteem  of  his  brethren, 
at  the  head  of  the  American  bar.  In 
concluding  his  great  address,  Mr.  Carter 
said: 

"  And    the    ancient    Commonwealth    of 
Virginia — to  what  nobler  object   can  she 

47 


ftnifoergitp  of  Virginia 


extend  her  favor  and  support  than  the 
building  up  upon  this  historic  spot  of  a 
great  university  which  shall  be  at  once 
the  home  of  the  sciences  and  the  arts, 
and  the  nursery  of  political  freedom  ? 
Outshining  all  her  sister  colonies  in  the 
splendor  of  her  contribution  to  the  gal- 
axy of  great  names  which  adorns  our 
Revolutionary  history,  how  can  she  bet- 
ter perpetuate  that  glory  than  by  send- 
ing forth  from  her  own  soil  a  new  line 
of  patriot  statesmen  ?  No  jealousies  will 
attend  her  efforts  to  this  great  end,  and 
her  sister  States  would  greet  with  de- 
light her  reascending  star  once  more 
blazing  in  the  zenith  of  its  own  proper 
firmament." 

As  the  orator  was  speaking  for  Vir- 
ginia's sister  States,  so  undertaking  to 
speak  for  the  educational  institutions  in 
the  South,  I  would  say,  "  no  jealousies, 

48 


in  tf)e  Eife  of  tfje  Ration 


Mr.  President,  will  attend  your  efforts " 
to  realize  the  great  ideal  of  your  life 
here.  Without  envy,  we  see  that  yours 
is  the  first  Southern  institution  in  whose 
very  birth  national  influences  were  at 
work  in  that  unpretending  tavern  in 
Rockfish  Gap,  where  three  presidents 
of  the  United  States,  with  other  distin- 
guished men,  met  to  prepare  a  report 
upon  a  rounded  scheme  of  State  educa- 
tion. We  recognize,  too,  that  Virginia 
occupies  a  peculiar  relation  to  the  South 
in  the  fact  that  it  was  on  her  territory 
that  the  tremendous  issues  of  the  war 
between  the  States  were  fought  out  and 
settled,  thus  linking  the  very  names  of 
her  battlefields  with  the  traditions  of 
every  Southern  State ;  that  it  was  Vir- 
ginia's soil  alone  that  drank  the  blood 
of  the  brave  souls  of  all  the  South,  thus 
linking  your  name  with  the  fireside  tra- 

49 


Che  ambcrBitp  of  Virginia 


ditions  of  every  Southern  home.  There 
were  other  Southern  universities  whose 
existence  began  before  yours.  The  Uni- 
versity of  Georgia  was  chartered  in 

1785- 

You  remember,  with  James  C.  Carter, 
whom  I  again  quote,  that  "the  youth 
who  are  brought  here  should  study  not 
only  the  principles  of  liberty  and  free 
government  as  taught  by  the  founder, 
but  the  new  problems  arising  from  the 
prodigious  growth  of  the  nation  and  its 
rapid  material  consolidation;  the  true 
principles  of  legislation,  and  by  what 
methods  liberty  is  best  reconciled  with 
order  and  with  law;  teaching  them  to 
prefer  for  their  country  that  renown 
among  the  nations  which  comes  from 
the  constant  display  of  the  love  of 
peace  and  justice."  You  will  look  to 
the  future,  for,  in  the  language  of  the 

50 


in  tftc  Ilifc  of  tfje  Ration 


poet    who    should   have  been  heir  to  the 
laurel    of   Tennyson, 

"  He  loves  man's  noble  memories  too  well 
Who  does  not  love  man's  nobler  hopes  yet  more." 

For  the  fulfilment  of  this  great  ideal 
the  man  and  the  hour  have  met.  Prov- 
idence has  given  you  a  leader: 

"  One  who  counts  no  public  toil  so  hard 

As  idly  glittering  pleasures ;   one  controlled 
By  no  mob's  haste,  nor  swayed  by  gods  of  gold ; 

Prizing,  not  courting,  all  just  men's  regard ; 

With  none  but  Manhood's  ancient  Order  starred, 
Nor  crowned  with  titles  less  august  and  old 
Than  human  greatness ;  large-brained,  limpid-souled ; 

Whom  dreams  can  hurry  not,  nor  doubts  retard ; 

Born,  nurtured  of  the  People,  living  still 
The  People's  life ;  and  though  their  noblest  flower, 

In  nought  removed  above  them,  save  alone 
In  loftier  virtue  wisdom,  courage,  power." 


5Jniber£itp  of  Virginia 


FOR    SISTER    UNIVERSITIES    OF 
THE   WEST 

BY    PRESIDENT    R.    H.    JESSE,    OF    THE    UNIVERSITY    OF 
MISSOURI 

I  bring,  Mr.  President,  greetings  from 
the  University  of  Missouri  to  my  Alma 
Mater,  the  University  of  Virginia — 
greetings  from  the  Louisiana  Purchase 
acquired  by  Thomas  Jefferson,  to  this 
Mother  of  State  Universities  founded 
by  him. 

Jefferson  was  the  greatest  prophet  of 
public  education  that  our  country  has 
yet  produced.  For  fifty  years  he  was 
dominated  by  a  passion  for  civil  and 
religious  freedom  through  republican 
institutions,  and  by  a  passion  for  public 
education  in  common  schools,  and  in 
State  universities. 

For  a  season,  at  least,    Mr.    Jefferson's 


in  tf>e  itife  of  tfte  Ration 


ideas  in  behalf  of  education  did  not  bear 
much  fruit  in  the  Old  Dominion,  but  the 
yield  from  them  was  magnificent  in  the 
daughters  of  Virginia  beyond  the  Alle- 
ghany  Mountains.  As  every  student  of 
history  knows,  Virginia  ceded  to  the  Fed- 
eral Government  most  of  the  land  em- 
braced in  the  "  Northwest  Territory" — the 
vast  region  lying  north  of  the  Ohio  River, 
east  of  the  Mississippi,  south  of  Canada, 
and  west  of  the  Alleghany  Mountains. 

In  1803,  Ohio,  Virginia's  latest  daugh- 
ter from  the  West,  knocked  for  admission 
into  this  sisterhood  of  States.  Jefferson 
was  at  that  time  President  of  the  United 
States.  Congress  imposed  upon  Ohio 
certain  conditions  which  she  must  faith- 
fully observe  before  being  admitted  into 
the  Union;  and  with  these  two  conditions 
were  two  large  grants  of  land,  one  for 
the  endowment  of  what  ultimately  became 

53 


of  Virginia 


a  State  university.  This  magnificent  pol- 
icy in  regard  to  public  education,  estab- 
lished under  the  presidency  of  Jefferson, 
has  been  pursued  by  our  country  in  the 
admission  of  Western  States  for  over  one 
hundred  years.  If  we  except  West  Vir- 
ginia and  Texas,  no  State  from  the  crest 
of  the  Alleghany  Mountains  to  the  shores 
of  the  Pacific  Ocean  for  102  years  has 
been  admitted  into  the  Union  without 
pledging  the  support  of  its  people  to  com- 
mon schools  and  State  universities. 

And  in  these  later  days  this  policy,  so 
to  speak,  this  policy  first  established  by 
Jefferson,  has  stretched  its  wings  beyond 
the  confines  of  our  continent,  and  touched 
with  pinion  tips  our  island  possessions  in 
the  eastern  and  western  seas.  We,  there- 
fore, who  believe  in  public  schools  and 
State  universities,  and  especially  the  peo- 
ple of  the  West,  may  well  cry  unto  him 

54 


iu  tfje  Sife  of  tfje  Ration 


as  the  lesser  prophets  of  old  cried  ever 
unto  the  greater,  "My  father,  my  father, 
the  chariots  of  Israel  and  the  horsemen 
thereof."  For  verily  unto  our  Israel  of 
public  education,  from  kindergarten  to 
State  university,  Jefferson  has  been  as  a 
squadron  of  armed  chariots  and  as  a 
legion  of  mailed  horsemen.  He  has  been 
father  also  of  public  schools  and  State 
universities,  beginning  with  Ohio  and 
stretching  out  to  the  shores  of  the  Pacific 
Ocean. 

Compelled,  finally,  against  his  will,  to 
abandon  the  idea  of  public  schools  in 
Virginia,  Jefferson  still  struggled  for  the 
last  twenty-five  years  of  his  life  with 
tongue  and  with  pen  and  with  zeal  for 
a  great  State  university.  Time  fails  me 
to  tell  you  even  briefly  of  his  ideal  of 
higher  education. 

Let    me     call    your     attention    to     the 

55 


of  Virginia 


fact  that  the  best  seats  of  learning  on 
earth  in  Jefferson's  day  consisted  of 
departments  of  Law,  Medicine,  Theol- 
ogy, and  Philosophy.  He  had  no  pre- 
cedent in  Europe  or  in  America  for 
going  beyond  this  concentrated  quadriv- 
ium.  But  these  departments,  important 
as  they  are,  represented  but  a  tithe  of 
the  instruction  which  Mr.  Jefferson 
planned  here.  For  example,  without  the 
precedent  therefor  among  institutions 
then  existing  in  America  and  Europe, 
he  advocated  instruction  in  the  "use 
of  tools,"  and  in  Technical  Philosophy, 
— or,  as  we  should  say  now,  in  Manual 
Training  and  in  Engineering.  To  the 
dismay  of  educators,  he  laid  out  here 
courses  in  Agriculture,  Horticulture,  Vet- 
erinary Surgery,  and  in  Military  Science. 
Not  until  1862  did  our  country  finally 
realize  that  a  College  of  Agriculture,  em- 

56 


in  t&e  Jlife  of  tJje  Ration 


bracing  also  the  Science  of  Warfare,  might 
be  added  to  a  great  university  without 
utterly  destroying  its  dignity.  It  was  here 
among  these  Ragged  Mountains  he 
pleaded  for  courses  in  Fine  Art,  and  in 
Tools,  in  Architecture,  "  Civil,  Military, 
and  Naval."  And  schools  of  Commerce 
and  Manufacture,  schools  of  States- 
manship and  Diplomacy  he  would  have 
established  here  when  the  nineteenth 
century  was  yet  in  its  teens  had  Vir- 
ginia only  hearkened  unto  his  advice. 
Nor  did  he  forget  to  plead  for  the 
"Theory  of  Music."  Indeed  there  is 
scarcely  a  large  division  of  learning  that 
has  been  added  within  the  past  one  hun- 
dred years  to  any  considerable  college  or 
university  in  this  country  that  Jefferson 
did  not  clearly  outline  as  a  part  of  his 
ideal  State  University  of  Virginia;  and  I 
can  not  find  a  department  for  which  he 


57 


€f)e  &nitoer#itp  of  Virginia 


pleaded,  saving  only  a  School  of  Manu- 
facture, that  has  not  subsequently  been 
adopted  in  more  than  one  American  insti- 
tution of  unquestionable  renown. 

Indeed,  Engineering,  for  example,  has 
been  developed  in  the  Massachusetts 
Institute  of  Technology  far  beyond  that 
"  Technical  Philosophy"  which  Jefferson 
had  in  mind,  and  so  with  everything  else. 
But  of  what  other  man  in  the  history  of 
the  human  race  can  it  be  said  that  stand- 
ing on  the  threshold  of  a  period  of  rapid 
change,  he  forecast  the  development 
of  higher  education  for  a  century  of 
time? 

The  University  which  he  finally 
founded  here,  in  the  twilight  of  his  days, 
was  but  a  part  of  that  institution  which 
he  had  fancied;  nevertheless,  in  spite  of 
all  its  shortcomings,  for  the  space  of  fifty 
years  it  was  perhaps  the  foremost  seat  of 

58 


in  tfje  %iit  of  tlje  Ration 


learning  on  this  continent.  But  when,  in 
1876,  the  Johns  Hopkins  opened  its  doors, 
then  for  a  season,  at  least,  "the  sceptre 
departed  from  Judah  and  a  lawgiver 
from  between  his  feet."  Then  arose 
among  our  American  universities  that 
fierce  struggle  for  pre-eminence  which  for 
thirty  years  has  raged  North  and  South, 
and  East  and  West. 

It  may  well  be,  Mr.  President,  that  be- 
ginning from  to-day  there  shall  yet  come 
an  era  of  rapid  growth  and  expansion  to 
this  Mother  of  State  Universities,  the 
daughter  of  Thomas  Jefferson.  It  may 
be  that  ere  long  his  vision  shall  yet  be 
fulfilled  here  in  a  full-orbed  university,  the 
embodiment  of  all  that  he  hoped  for,  and 
of  all  that  has  been  achieved  in  higher 
education  in  our  country  in  a  century  of 
time.  The  All  Gracious  God  grant  that 
this  come  to  pass  quickly  for  the  repose 

59 


anttootfttp  of  Virginia 


of  his  soul  who  was  father  unto  the  Uni- 
versity  of  Virginia. 

Long  ago  the  Prophet  went  up  from 
among  his  disciples.  His  mantle,  in  mid- 
air long  suspended,  as  it  were,  seems  to 
have  fallen  upon  your  shoulders,  Mr. 
President.  May  a  double  portion  of  his 
spirit  be  upon  you! 

INAUGURAL   ADDRESS   BY 
PRESIDENT  ALDERMAN. 

Your  Excellency,  Mr.  Rector,  Gentle- 
men  of  the  Board  of  Visitors  and  the 
Faculties,  our  Welcome  Guests,  Students 
of  the  University,  Ladies  and  Gentle- 
men :  —  Eighty-seven  years  ago,  the 
Commonwealth  of  Virginia,  inspired  by 
the  genius  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  guided 
by  the  patient  good  sense  of  Joseph 
Cabell,  and  heartened  by  the  encour- 


in  tf)e  Jtife  of  tfje  Ration 


agement  of  James  Madison  and  James 
Monroe,  laid  the  foundation  of  this 
University,  and  dedicated  it  consciously 
to  freedom  for  mind  and  soul,  to  desire 
for  knowledge  and  truth,  and  to  solemn 
faith  in  the  justice  and  slow  progres- 
siveness  of  a  democratic  society.  Men 
of  English  and  Scotch-Irish  breeding 
long  settled  on  the  soil  of  the  State, 
had  evolved  a  free  and  forceful  society 
of  gracious  charm  and  distinction,  and 
leadership  in  the  republic  then  belonged 
to  Virginia  through  the  rare  greatness 
of  her  sons. 

Out  of  her  social  conditions  had  come 
the  spirit  that  called  for  revolution  in 
voices  singularly  clear  and  sweet.  From 
her  independent  life  had  arisen  the  forces 
that  clothed  in  noble  phrase  the  reasons 
for  revolution;  that  guided  victoriously 
the  legions  of  war ;  that  bore  just  part 

61 


€hc  &nitoer£itp  of  Virginia 


in  the  shaping  of  the  Constitution,  so 
compact  of  high  sense  and  tragic  com- 
promise ;  that  interpreted  its  spirit ;  that 
widened  Colonial  vision  from  provin- 
cialism to  empire ;  that  fixed  faith  in 
average  humanity  as  the  philosophy  of 
a  new  civilization,  and  that  set  the 
frame  work  of  the  great  popular  experi- 
ment in  forms  of  imperishable  strength 
and  beauty. 

The  illustrious  man  who  inspired  this 
foundation  has  eternal  honor  here.  Here 
he  lived,  here  they  laid  his  mortal  body, 
and  here  dwells  in  ceaseless  energy  his 
immortal  spirit.  But  Thomas  Jefferson, 
like  George  Washington,  is  a  world 
name  and  a  world  force.  His  phrases, 
on  the  lips  of  aspiration,  stand  every- 
where as  a  rebuke  and  a  stumbling- 
block  to  tyranny  and  oppression.  His 
ideals,  far  spreading  in  all  lands,  have 

62 


in  tlje  %iit  of  tlje  Ration 


given  energy  and  reality  to  the  demo- 
cratic movement  of  the  modern  age  in 
Europe  and  America.  To  this  Univer- 
sity Thomas  Jefferson  is  something  more 
than  a  philosopher,  or  a  figure  in  a  pan- 
theon. He  is  a  friend,  a  founder,  a 
father.  No  university  in  the  world — 
not  Bologna,  or  El  Ashar,  or  Oxford, 
or  Prague — is  so  intimately  associated 
with  so  immortal  a  name.  To  us  he 
inhabits  his  high  hill  forever,  an  un- 
wearied, versatile,  myriad-minded  old 
man,  acquainted  with  glory  and  high 
station,  a  smile  of  faith  forever  on  his 
lips,  a  passion  for  freedom  forever  at 
his  heart,  knowing  men  deeply  and  yet 
believing  in  them  and  having  patience 
with  them ;  subjecting  everything  with 
thoughtful  radicalism  to  the  test  of  their 
advancement;  watching  with  patient  eyes 
the  slow  rising  walls  of  this  University 

63 


of  Virginia 


for  their  training,  and  counting  that  foun- 
dation the  greatest  in  the  sum  of  his 
vast  human  achievement. 

Born  thus  of  the  union  of  human  en- 
thusiasm and  civic  impulse,  the  University 
of  Virginia  seems  to  me  the  first  deliberate 
gift  of  democratic  idealism  to  the  nation 
and  century,  though  one  score  and  seven- 
teen institutions  had  preceded  it  in  the 
national  life,  owing  their  origin  to  the 
great  historic  causes  of  religious  zeal, 
private  beneficence,  and  high  community 
impulses  for  wisdom  and  guidance. 

In  our  satisfaction  that  we  stand  so 
impressively  as  an  expression  of  the  na- 
tional mind  toward  political  self-direction, 
let  us  not  forget  the  debt  that  we  owe  to 
the  great  forces  that  had  already  builded 
the  pioneer  American  institutions,  Har- 
vard, William  and  Mary,  Yale,  Columbia, 
Princeton,  the  universities  of  Pennsyl- 


in  tfte  itife  of  tfyt  Ration 


vania,  the  Carolinas,  and  Georgia  out  of 
which  had  come  the  inspiration  for  Lex- 
ington and  Yorktown,  the  Continental 
Congress,  and  the  Constitutional  Conven- 
tion. In  particular,  let  us  not  forget  the 
religious  motive  that  gave  sacredness  and 
moral  direction  to  our  ideals,  that  held  us 
to  the  faith  that  man's  relation  to  God  is 
the  supreme  essence  of  human  culture, 
and  that  admonishes  us,  day  by  day,  that 
"  through  wisdom  is  an  house  builded,  and 
by  understanding  it  is  established,  and  by 
knowledge  shall  the  chambers  be  filled 
with  all  precious  and  pleasant  riches." 

Universities  stand  both  as  servants  and 
as  symbols  of  the  spiritual  insight  and  the 
social  needs  of  their  epochs.  The  Greek 
peoples  studied  philosophy  because  the 
need  of  their  time  was  ethical.  The 
Englishman  is  intent  upon  the  getting  of 
general  culture,  because  his  need  is  for 

65 


€t)e  UmfcrrBttp  of  Birgnnn 


the  man  of  breadth  and  cultured  will.  In 
the  second  decade  of  the  republic  popular 
thought  centered  upon  the  rights  of  man 
and  the  bounds  of  political  freedom. 
The  statement  of  the  purpose  in  the 
founding  of  the  University,  therefore, 
drawn  up  by  the  same  hand  that  had 
drawn  up  the  Declaration  of  American 
Independence,  while  reflecting  this  mood 
of  the  age,  passed  beyond  it  with  a  daring 
comprehensiveness  that  marks  our  founder 
as  a  master  of  foresight  and  interpretation. 
"This  University  shall  exist,"  said  Jeffer- 
son, 

"(i)  To  form  the  statesmen,  legisla- 
tors, and  judges  on  whom  public  pros- 
perity and  individual  happiness  are  so 
much  to  depend; 

"  (2)  To  expound  the  principles  and 
structure  of  government,  the  laws  which 
regulate  the  intercourse  of  nations,  those 

66 


in  rtje  Hiife  of  tf>e  Ration 


formed  municipally  for  our  own  govern- 
ment, and  a  sound  spirit  of  legislation 
which,  banishing  all  unnecessary  restraint 
on  individual  action,  shall  leave  us  free  to 
do  whatever  does  not  violate  the  equal 
rights  of  another; 

"  (3)  To  harmonize  and  promote  the  in- 
terests of  agriculture,  manufactures,  and 
commerce,  and  by  well  informed  views  of 
political  economy,  to  give  a  free  scope  to 
the  public  industry; 

"  (4)  To  develop  the  reasoning  faculties 
of  our  youth,  enlarge  their  minds,  culti- 
vate their  morals,  and  instil  into  them 
the  precepts  of  virtue  and  order ; 

"  (5)  To  enlighten  them  with  mathe- 
matical and  physical  sciences,  which 
advance  the  arts  and  administer  to  the 
health,  the  subsistence  and  comforts  of 
human  life; 

"  (6)  And,   generally,  to    form  them  to 


of  Virginia 


habits  of  reflection  and  correct  action, 
rendering  them  examples  of  virtue  to 
others  and  of  happiness  within  them- 
selves." 

Not  since  John  Milton  had  declared 
that  to  be  "a  compleat  and  generous  edu- 
cation which  fits  a  man  to  perform  justly, 
skilfully,  and  magnanimously  all  the  offi- 
ces, both  public  and  private,  of  peace 
and  war,"  had  there  been  put  forth  such 
a  classic  statement  of  educational  purpose, 
and  as  only  he  who  could  draw  the  bow 
of  Ulysses  could  realize  the  Miltonic 
ideal,  so  all  the  constructive  thinking  and 
piled-up  wealth  of  succeeding  generations 
have  left  unattained  the  Jeffersonian  pro- 
gramme. In  its  academic  structure  and 
in  the  scope  and  grouping  of  its  work, 
Jefferson  had  spiritual  sight  of  the  mod- 
ern American  University,  even  now  but 
dimly  taking  shape  out  of  the  needs  of  a 

68 


in  tfte  nift  of  tf)e  Ration 


new  society,  the  efforts  of  countless  men 
and  unmeasured  power,  as  our  greatest 
intellectual  achievement.  His  revolution- 
ary  mind  put  aside  the  English  college 
model  as  the  proper  force  for  training 
the  American  democrat,  with  its  exclusive 
tradition  of  humanistic  culture,  and  the 
formalism  of  the  English  country  gentle- 
man, though  he  was  broad  enough  to 
recognize  the  wisdom  of  halls  of  resi- 
dence and  the  communal  life  therein 
which  the  English  had  evolved,  and 
which  they  believe  has  contributed  to 
produce  the  type  of  man  who  has  wid- 
ened the  arch  of  the  British  Empire. 

President  Eliot,  a  great  modern  mas- 
ter and  interpreter  of  educational  method 
and  purpose,  has  recently  declared  that 
there  are  three  indispensable  attributes  of 
a  true  university:  Freedom  in  the  choice 
of  studies;  opportunity  to  win  distinction 

69 


€l)e  CJnifcer^itp  of  Virginia 


in  special  lines  of  study;  a  discipline 
which  imposes  on  each  individual  the 
responsibility  for  forming  his  own  habits 
and  guiding  his  own  conduct. 

Our  great  dreamer  seized  just  these 
three  essentials,  and  upon  them  shaped 
the  life  of  the  University  of  Virginia,  as 
necessary  conditions,  at  a  time  when 
they  were  not  only  unrealized  but  unim- 
agined  in  American  educational  practice. 
To  this  absolutely  right  foundation  are 
due  the  just  claims  that  here  began 
the  first  real  American  university,  and 
the  first  whole-hearted  experiment  with 
the  elective  principle,  and  the  interest- 
ing result  that  there  has  always  been 
a  true  university  at  Charlottesville.  In 
spite  of  meager  equipment,  though  at 
its  birth  it  was  probably  the  most 
liberally  planned  institution  of  the  coun- 
try; in  spite  of  insufficient  preparatory 

70 


in  tljc  Xtfe  of  tfte  Ration 


training  at  times  for  its  students ;  in 
spite  of  restricted  scope  and  inability 
to  welcome  into  the  circle  of  liberal 
arts  the  growing  mass  of  new  studies, 
the  university  spirit  has  always  informed 
our  life — a  spirit  that  beheld  the  scholar's 
life  as  a  fair  and  fruitful  thing,  begot  in 
youth  a  desire  not  only  to  acquire,  but 
to  add  somewhat  to  the  sum  of  knowl- 
edge, and  evolved  a  method  of  intensive 
thoroughness  that  yielded  knowledge  of 
how  truth  may  be  won. 

The  character  of  an  institution  is  the 
resultant  of  its  ideals  and  of  the  social 
forces  that  cry  out  to  it  for  direction. 
The  first  three  decades  in  the  life  of 
this  University,  like  the  first  three  in 
the  life  of  man,  forever  fixed  its  char- 
acter. The  revolutionary  dynasty  had 
passed  away,  the  battle  for  equality 
and  human  sympathy  securely  won.  A 

71 


ftnifcer^itp  of  Birginia 


young  republic,  its  concept  of  democracy 
suddenly  shifted  from  sovereignty  to 
omnipotence,  stood  up  before  the  world, 
lacking  the  instinct  of  unity,  virile  and 
wayward  in  its  confident  strength. 

Steam  and  inventive  genius  touched 
its  heart  with  desire  and  pointed  the 
way  for  material  advancement.  A  vast 
untouched  empire  beckoned  adventurous 
spirits  from  all  lands  to  enterprise  and 
conquest.  There  was  brewing  the  storm 
of  a  great  argument  as  to  the  nature 
of  this  Union,  made  necessary  by  the 
silence  and  indecision  of  the  Consti- 
tution, and  made  imminent  by  the 
presence  of  a  vast  human  problem  in 
economics  bequeathed  to  us  by  the 
industrial  need  and  moral  callousness 
of  ages  past.  Men  in  America  have 
never  been  so  much  in  earnest  about 
vital  things  as  they  were  in  these  days. 


in  t&e  nift  of  tfte  Ration 


Their  hearts  were  touched  with  fire  and 
their  very  lives  did  not  appear  to  them 
so  indispensable  as  their  ideas.  The 
passion  of  the  time  was  a  passion  for 
principle  and  loyalty.  The  aptitude  of 
the  time  was  for  the  building  of  States. 
There  was  no  room  in  high  places  for 
the  cynic,  the  idler,  the  self  seeker. 
Cleared  of  human  weakness  and  hot 
temper,  one  sees  in  these  sad,  earnest 
years  a  time  of  single  mindedness  and 
sincerity,  of  the  uplifted  heart  and  of 
steadfast  gazing  upon  the  heights  of 
honor  and  duty,  and  they  must  ever 
remain  the  epic  period  of  the  struggle 
of  democracy,  under  crushing  difficul- 
ties, after  self-consciousness  and  unity 
of  purpose. 

True  wisdom  guided  the  selection  of 
the  formative  men  who  came  here  to 
teach,  whether  from  Europe  or  America, 

73 


of  Virginia 


for  they  were  high-statured  men  and 
great  teachers,  as  well  as  scholars,  evok- 
ing enthusiasm  for  letters  in  their  disci- 
ples, setting  high  and  necessary  standards 
of  scholarship  in  the  land,  and  leaving 
behind  them  an  enduring  education  of 
sweet  and  vital  memories.  Dunglison, 
Emmet,  Tucker,  Cabell,  Rogers,  Gessner 
Harrison,  Davis,  McGuffey,  Courtenay, 
Venable,  Minor,  to  mention  only  some  of 
the  dead.  The  mere  intonation  of  their 
names,  each  a  unit  of  power,  of  sacrifice, 
and  of  service,  is  the  best  celebration  of 
their  fame  my  tongue  can  fashion.  The 
old  graduate  here  recalls  men,  not  build- 
ings. When  he  accounts  for  his  measure 
of  virtue,  he  calls  the  roll  of  his  old 
teachers,  as  Marcus  Aurelius  did,  long  ages 
ago,  on  the  banks  of  the  Danube.  Indeed, 
the  distinction  of  this  life  has  been  the  con- 
tact of  the  individual  with  the  great  teacher. 

74 


in  tfje  Eife  of  tfte  Ration 


The  youth  who  came  here  to  learn 
were  such  youth  as  such  times  breed. 
They  were  heedless  of  much  that  is 
heeded  now.  But  they  were  afire  with 
the  impulses  of  their  generation.  There 
dwelt  in  them  the  root  of  a  deep  serious- 
ness, an  earnest  ambition  for  service  to 
the  State,  and  a  calm  faith  in  the  power 
of  the  cultured  will  and  the  honorable 
life.  It  was  the  golden  age  of  education 
in  the  Southern  States — the  high  water 
mark  of  individual  effort  in  behalf  of  the 
training  of  picked  youth.  "  Studies  were 
blooming  and  minds  awakening."  More 
than  eight  thousand  young  scholars,  from 
a  varied  territory,  passed  through  these 
walls  between  i83O-'6o  to  the  larger  life 
of  leadership  in  Church  and  State,  as  cab- 
inet ministers,  jurists,  physicians,  senators, 
governors,  scholars,  preachers,  and  great 
cultured  gentlemen.  The  spirit  of  the 

75 


of  Virginia 


time  sent  most  of  them  into  the  public 
service,  where  they  made  of  politics  a 
lofty  profession,  the  tradition  of  which 
informs  and  ennobles  American  political 
life  to-day.  But  they  may  be  found  all 
along  the  wide  lines  of  life,  finding  eternal 
beauty  in  form  like  Poe,  searching  the 
Arctic  seas  like  Kane,  joining  New  Eng- 
land's scholars  in  the  great  movement 
which  brought  Germanic  scholarship  to 
our  shores,  seeking  and  serving  God  like 
Broadus  and  Dudley,  or  yielding  up  their 
lives  in  righteous  consecration  on  the 
battle's  edge. 

Out  of  the  interplay  of  such  forces, 
in  a  time  of  such  intensity  and  per- 
sonality, was  won  the  intimate  character 
of  the  University  of  Virginia.  One  does 
not  have  to  search  for  this  institutional 
character  as  for  something  elusive  and 
subtle.  It  shines  out  before  the  face 

76 


in  tfte  mtt  of  tfje  Ration 


of  the  stranger  in  five  clear  points  of 
light: 

A  sympathetic  understanding  of  de- 
mocracy as  a  working  hypothesis  of  life, 
guaranteeing  to  every  man  a  chance  to 
realize  the  best  that  is  in  him. 

An  absolute  religious  freedom,  com- 
bined with  wide  and  vital  religious 
opportunities. 

An  appeal  to  the  best  in  young  men, 
resulting  in  the  creation  of  a  student 
public  opinion  and  a  student  system  of 
honor,  which  endowed  the  University 
of  the  past,  and  endows  the  Univer- 
sity of  to-day  with  its  richest  asset  of 
reputation  and  fame. 

A  high  standard  of  scholarship  rigidly 
maintained,  in  an  air  of  freedom  of 
learning  and  freedom  of  teaching,  beget- 
ting an  austere  ideal  of  intellectual  thor- 
oughness and  honesty. 


77 


UmfccrsttjLJ  of  Birgnna 


A  conception  of  culture  as  a  com- 
pound of  sound  learning  and  gracious 
conduct,  as  an  inheritance  of  manhood 
and  moral  will  won  through  discipline 
and  conquest,  and  as  a  capacity  to  deal 
with  men  in  the  rough  work  of  the 
world  with  gentleness  and  simplicity. 

When  the  tempest  of  war  finally  fell, 
it  was  this  spirit  that  possessed  the 
twenty-five  hundred  ardent  young  souls 
who  went  forth  from  these  doors,  and 
"  on  war's  red  touchstone  rang  true 
metal."  When  the  tempest  ceased,  it  was 
this  same  spirit  that  bred  in  the  men 
of  to-day  strength  and  patience,  and  a 
genius  of  common  sense  that  enabled 
them  to  endure,  to  rebuild  and  to  pre- 
serve for  the  world  things  the  world 
should  not  lose.  I  pledge  myself,  under 
God,  to  do  what  I  can  to  cherish  and 
to  magnify,  come  good  days  or  ill,  this 

78 


in  ttje  Jlifc  of  tljc  Ration 


inspiring  university  character.  I  do  not 
mean  that  there  should  not  be  readjust- 
ment here  —  change,  if  you  will  —  the 
growth  that  is  conservative  of  life  and 
that  conies  somehow  out  of  the  tissues 
of  ancient  strength.  A  changing  society 
means  a  changing  curriculum,  and  a  uni- 
versity is  society  shaping  itself  to  future 
needs.  But  there  are  things  that  are  eter- 
nal, and  the  substance  of  this  ancient 
spirit  of  the  University  of  Virginia  is 
one  of  them. 

The  Americans  of  the  Southern  States 
are  the  only  Americans  who  have  known 
in  direst  form  the  discipline  of  war  and 
the  education  of  defeat.  They  alone  of 
this  unbeaten  land  have  had  intimate 
experience  of  revolution  and  despair. 
The  University  of  Virginia,  as  their 
chiefest  servant,  has  shared  with  them 
this  stern  self-revealing  tutelage.  One 

79 


ftnifcergitp  of  Birginia 


can  never  know  what  fair  visions  of 
its  destiny  filled  the  eye  of  Thomas 
Jefferson.  He  beheld  it  guiding  wisely 
the  local  life  of  Virginia.  He  beheld 
it  as  a  training  place  for  democratic  leader- 
ship in  the  State  and  nation;  as  an  in- 
spirer  to  the  great  Northwest  and  South- 
west, as  those  States  swept  into  ordered 
life;  but  his  optimism,  as  well  as  human 
limitations,  shut  it  out  from  his  sight,  in 
its  sacredest  relation,  as  the  source  of 
light  to  a  land  left  in  darkness  and  silence 
by  the  storm  of  war.  Is  there  in  aca- 
demic annals  such  a  story  of  precious  priv- 
ilege and  fulfilment?  As  each  stricken 
State  found  heart  to  relight  its  ancient 
torches,  its  sons  came  here  for  the  sacred 
fire,  where  patient  hands  had  kept  it  burn- 
ing, or  to  our  sister  University  in  the 
Valley,  where  the  great  soldier  sat  at  the 
teacher's  desk,  revealing  a  moral  splendor 

so 


in  tlje  3iift  of  tJje  Ration 


more  touching  and  glorious  than  his 
martial  fame.  To  the  Southern  man  of 
middle  life,  the  University  meant  this  Uni- 
versity. The  world  has  deemed  this  a 
gentle  and  lovable  provincialism,  but  in  a 
deep  sense  it  was  true,  for  here,  indeed, 
was  the  home  of  his  ideals,  and  hence 
had  come  the  men,  the  methods,  the 
re-awakened  educational  desire,  the  noble 
consolation  of  unweakened  spirit,  and 
even  amid  the  ravages  of  war,  the  unrav- 
aged  vision  of  arts  and  philosophy. 

Secure,  therefore,  in  the  dignity  of  an 
intellectual  authority  which  it  has  earned, 
and  a  national  service  which  it  has 
rendered,  enriched  by  the  currents  of  a 
gentle  civilization  flowing  about  it  for 
generations,  protected  by  the  love  and 
veneration  of  thousands,  seated  among 
hills  of  quiet  strength  and  beauty,  and 
stamped  upon  its  outward  form  with  "the 


anitirrritp  of  Virginia 


glory  that  was  Greece,  and  the  grandeur 
that  was  Rome,"  if  I  may  use  the  very 
words  of  its  most  gifted  child  of  genius 
and  song,  this  University  faces  the  future, 
which  summons  you  and  me  to-day  to 
preserve  and  strengthen,  as  it  summoned 
the  founders  long  ages  past  to  conceive 
and  create. 

The  glory  of  Jefferson  was  his  enthusi- 
asm for  the  future.  It  was  the  prophecy 
in  democracy  that  charmed  his  spirit.  A 
noble  past  might  be  a  dangerous  thing, 
he  thought,  if  it  brought  contentment  with 
a  complacent  present  or  an  uncertain 
future,  and  there  was  no  splendor  in  it 
for  him  if  it  did  not  urge  men  onward. 
It  has  been  given  to  this  University  to 
render  wide  and  definite  service  for  polit- 
ical freedom  and  human  culture  and  char- 
acter in  an  age  of  national  development 
and  trial,  Is  there  not  equal  work  for 

83 


in  tfte  Hiit  of  tfte  Ration 


it  to  do  in  behalf  of  spiritual  freedom, 
intellectual  courage,  and  economic  inde- 
pendence and  justice  in  an  age  of  social 
expansion  and  experiment?  Is  it  not  just 
as  much  a  pioneer  in  the  latter  struggle 
for  a  larger  life  as  it  was  when  it  came 
from  the  hand  of  its  founder  in  the  gen- 
erous fervor  of  a  new  hope?  There  is 
still  a  democracy  to  be  served,  with  its 
dreams  unrealized,  its  ideals  changed,  its 
point  of  view  advanced.  The  democracy 
of  the  young  century  was  a  theory  of 
politics  and  philosophy.  The  democracy 
of  to-day  is  society,  fused  by  the  divine 
energy  of  the  Master,  seeking  unity  and 
development,  a  common  heart  and  con- 
science, but  beset  everywhere  by  reason 
of  our  passionate  social  movement,  by 
new  forms  of  wrongdoing  and  new  shapes 
of  unrighteousness.  If  some  of  its  early 
dreams  have  faded  in  the  light  of  com- 

83 


CJnifcergitp  of  Virginia 


mon  day,  it  is  because  economic  and 
social  questions  strike  deeper  than  issues 
formal  and  political,  and  for  their  solution 
make  demand  less  upon  emotions  and 
impulses,  and  more  upon  sound  knowledge, 
ordered  thinking  and  constructive  imagi- 
nation. The  craving  of  the  present  mood 
of  democracy  is  for  opportunity  to  share 
in  the  fulness  of  life,  to  break  up  its 
masses  into  units,  to  sift  its  units  for 
hidden  treasures,  and  to  enter  into  the 
finer  inheritances  of  the  civilization  which 
it  has  helped  to  build.  The  great-grand- 
sons of  the  men  who  fancied  the  suffrage 
would  bring  Utopia  now  set  their  hearts 
more  upon  the  wages  of  labor,  the  nature 
of  capital,  good  country  roads,  the  enrich- 
ment of  rural  life,  the  village  library,  the 
comely  school  house,  the  unimpeded  path 
to  some  such  spot  as  this. 

There  is  still  the  republic  to  be  served, 
84 


in  tfyt  Hiit  of  tfte  Ration 


venerable  now,  for  all  its  brilliancy,  and 
literally  made  over  in  outward  form,  in 
spiritual  purpose,  and  in  industrial  capa- 
city since  1850.  Who  shall  leaven  this 
tumult  of  peoples  with  soberness  and  sim- 
plicity and  Americanism?  What  is  Amer- 
icanism coming  to  signify  spiritually  to 
the  world?  Shall  it  be  alone  pride  01 
power,  passion  for  achievement,  genius 
for  self-indulgence,  mad  waste  of  energy, 
as  in  the  ant-hill ;  or  shall  it  mean  stead- 
fast justice,  respect  for  law,  sober  disci- 
pline, responsible  citizenship,  and  moral 
sturdiness? 

This  University  is  just  one  of  the 
circle  of  American  institutions,  seeking  to 
guarantee  the  right  answer  to  these  large 
questions  of  human  welfare.  A  sectional, 
like  a  sectarian,  university  is  unthinkable, 
and  we  are  spiritual  neighbor  to  Harvard 
and  Columbia,  to  Michigan  and  Texas, 

85 


ftnitoertfitp  of  Virginia 


to  Oxford  and  Cambridge.  President 
Hadley  has  recently  pointed  out  the 
potential  value  to  the  unity  of  our  na- 
tional life  of  the  presence  in  Northern 
universities  of  Southern  boys,  spreading 
their  sentiments  of  personal  and  intel- 
lectual honor,  winning  trust  and  friendship 
through  their  personalities,  and  revealing 
the  best  side  of  our  distinctive  life. 
Would  not  the  end  be  even  more  cer- 
tainly attained  by  the  presence  in  South- 
ern universities  of  Northern  boys,  coming 
under  the  influence  of  the  land  and  the 
people,  seeing  with  their  keen  eyes, 
trained  to  observation  and  inference,  the 
philosophy  of  our  past,  the  sources  of  our 
strength,  and  the  genius  of  our  life,  and 
giving  out  to  us  the  right  interpreta- 
tion of  the  nobler  life  of  their  region  ? 
Hitherto  we  have  depended  largely  upon 
the  tradesman,  the  traveler,  and  the 

86 


in  tfje  Sife  of  tfte  Ration 


commercialist  for  the  knowledge  and 
sympathy  that  come  of  commingling.  I 
believe  that  a  surer  way  is  to  bring  about 
intellectual  and  spiritual  intercourse  be- 
tween ingenuous  youth  when  life  is  young 
and  the  soul  is  free  of  bias  and  the  heart 
is  swift  to  sympathy.  We  have  much  to 
learn  of  the  North  and  West  of  moral 
persistence,  of  resolute  achievement,  of 
community  effort,  of  the  miracles  that 
may  be  wrought  by  concerted  action. 
May  we  not  claim  that  these  great  sec- 
tions of  our  country  have  much  to  learn 
of  us,  of  the  dignity  of  personality,  of 
idealism,  of  unsordidness,  of  the  indivi- 
dualism bred  in  the  bone  of  the  American 
as  yet  untouched  by  the  mingling  of 
races,  and  unmodified  by  relentless  urban 
influences?  As  a  brief  answer  to  the  vital 
question,  What  sort  of  men  have  you 
made?  I  may  reply:  Forty-seven  per 

87 


of  Bitginia 


cent,  of  our  students  came  to  us  from 
thirty-nine  States  other  than  Virginia; 
500  of  our  alumni  have  preached  the 
Gospel  throughout  the  world;  411  have 
occupied  chairs  in  151  universities  and 
colleges  in  33  States  and  4  foreign 
countries,  57  of  these  being  elected  in 
17  Northern  and  Western  States.  Our 
sons  have  governed  12  States  and 
administered  supreme  justice  in  17 
States ;  112  of  them  have  enacted  laws 
in  the  Federal  Congress ;  and  in  law, 
medicine,  business,  and  engineering  a 
host  of  them  are  serving  men  about 
the  world. 

It  is  too  clear  to  call  for  proof,  how- 
ever, that  the  chief  allegiance  of  this 
University  is  to  Virginia  and  to  its 
natural  contributing  territory.  Its  ele- 
mentary duties  are  to  furnish  a  liberal 
education  substantially  free  to  the  youth 


Of  TH£ 

(    UNIVERSITY 
X.  or  J 

in  tfte  %iit  of  tfte  Ration 

of  Virginia,  and  to  care  for  Virginia 
and  the  South  in  their  growing  life, 
in  educational,  cultural,  economic  direc- 
tions. If  there  be  a  question  touch- 
ing life  on  the  farm  or  in  the 
factory,  in  institutional  development,  in 
the  public  schools,  in  manufacturing  or 
municipal  problems,  some  intelligent 
answer  should  issue  from  the  Univer- 
sity. If  this  Union  symbolizes  the 
effort  of  freemen  to  combine  freedom 
and  justice  with  wealth  and  power,  the 
most  impressive  phase  of  this  effort  is 
the  proud,  self-reliant  re-entrance  of  the 
South,  after  isolation  and  submersion, 
into  the  work  of  the  modern  world 
without  loss  of  ancient  lovableness  and 
with  access  of  modern  vigor  and  mobil- 
ity. This  is  still  a  land  of  romanticism 
and  personality,  of  conservatism  and 
reverence,  of  loyalty  and  capacity  for 


Onifcergitp  of  Birginia 


devotion,  but  it  is  as  well  a  land  of 
community,  progress,  and  social  sym- 
pathy, perceiving  the  necessity  and  dig- 
nity of  industrial  efficiency,  and  realiz- 
ing and  mastering  the  economic  forces 
of  society.  It  has  indeed  begun  an 
economic  movement  destined  to  revo- 
lutionize its  life.  Disciplined  and  homo- 
geneous, our  educable  youth  are  reach- 
ing up  into  life,  through  sacrifice.  They 
are  no  better  than  other  American 
youth,  but  God  has  been  good  to  them, 
because  He  has  let  their  young  eyes 
see  life  as  duty  and  opportunity  and 
not  as  pleasure,  and  the  republic  needs 
their  tempered  strength  and  their  quality 
of  soul  and  their  scorn  of  dishonor. 
Nowhere  in  the  world  are  there  more 
difficult  and  dangerous  domestic  prob- 
lems. Nowhere  in  the  world  do  both 
nature  and  man  ask  so  plainly  for -the 

90 


in  t&e  3life  of  tfte  Ration 


trained  hand,  the  trained  mind,  and  the 
trained  will.  Everywhere  there  is  wealth 
to  be  won  and  institutions  to  be  molded 
and  ideals  to  be  maintained,  and  a  giant 
task  accomplished  of  relating  in  demo- 
cratic life  a  master  race  and  freed  race 
on  the  basis  of  justice,  but  comformable 
to  the  solemn  obligations  of  racial  integ- 
rity and  growth  and  of  an  unimpaired 
civilization. 

Humanism  produced  the  man  of  cul- 
ture and  his  peril  was  self-sufficiency 
and  a  conception  of  culture  as  orna- 
ment. Applied  science  and  the  imper- 
ious demands  of  commerce  have  pro- 
duced the  man  of  efficiency,  and  his 
peril  is  personal  barrenness  and  instinc- 
tive greed.  Our  country  needs  the 
idealism  of  the  one  and  the  lordship 
over  things  of  the  other,  and  such  a 
blend  will  be  the  great  citizen  whose 


CJnifcer^itp  of  Virginia 


advent  an  industrial  democracy  has  so 
long  foreshadowed.  The  kind  of  work 
he  shall  do  in  the  world  is  immaterial. 
He  shall  be  an  upward  striving  man  who 
wants  the  truth  and  dares  to  utter  it,  who 
knows  his  own  need  and  the  need  of  his 
age,  who  counts  adaptability  and  tolera- 
tion among  his  virtues,  who  insists  on  a 
little  leisure  for  his  soul's  sake,  and  who 
has  a  care,  whether  amid  the  warfare  of 
trade,  or  in  the  quiet  and  still  air  of 
study,  for  the  building  of  things  ever 
better  and  better  about  him.  Fashioned 
by  the  sweep  of  genius  through  experi- 
ence, great  citizens  may  come  who  have 
never  seen  a  university,  but  universities 
are  the  organized  efforts  of  monarchies 
and  democracies  to  produce  such  types, 
and  our  duty  is  to  perfect  the  organism 
and  to  work  and  hope. 

The    last    quarter    of   the    century   has 


in  tlje  ilife  of  tfte  Ration 


witnessed  the  organization  of  the  Ameri- 
can university,  and  the  partial  realization 
of  its  final  form.  The  next  quarter  of  a 
century  will  see  some  universities  with 
the  income  of  empires,  and  a  power  upon 
which  cities  and  States  will  lean  heavily 
for  guidance.  This  new  educational  form 
will  comprise: 

(i)  The  College  of  Liberal  Arts — the 
academic  heart — which  has  assimilated 
scientific  studies  and  thereby  put  itself  in 
touch  with  the  meaning  of  the  age.  Its 
function  will  be  to  receive  immature 
youth  in  an  atmosphere  of  broad  and 
varied  associations,  in  contact  with  wise 
and  noble  lives,  and  to  offer  them  such 
experience  in  evoking  manhood  and 
capacity,  and  such  knowledge  of  man, 
nature,  and  spirit,  that  they  shall  gain 
power  to  enter  into  life  with  character, 
enthusiasm,  and  conviction.  The  college 

93 


of  Virginia 


is  a  social  institution,  enlightening  and 
guiding  youth,  that  it  may  make  men  of 
them. 

(2)  The  Graduate  School — the  aca- 
demic brain — charged  with  the  function 
of  training  mature  and  liberally  educated 
men  to  investigation  and  scientific  pro- 
ductiveness. Here  shall  be  gained  that 
patience  and  energy,  that  open-mindedness 
and  sure  thinking,  that  intellectual  sin- 
cerity, that  have  belonged  to  all  of  the 
pathfinders  from  Aristotle  to  Pasteur,  and 
must  belong  to  him  who  would  broaden 
the  ways  and  enlarge  the  boundaries  of 
thought.  The  advance  of  civilization  will 
rest  on  the  strength  of  this  school  and 
through  its  work  alone  can  a  university 
hope  to  become  a  school  of  power,  bind- 
ing other  colleges  to  it  in  loyalty,  and  not 
only  responsive  to  tradition,  but  to  new 
truth  daily  appearing  in  the  life  of  man. 


94 


in  tf>e  fttfe  of  tfte  Ration 


Here  the  quiet  scholar  may  search  out 
the  truth  and  hold  it  aloft  for  men  to  see. 

(3)  The  Professional  Schools  —  the 
heart  and  brain  at  work  on  life — as  varied 
in  number  and  scope  as  society  is  com- 
plex, seeking  to  provide  the  world  with 
the  best  skill  needful  for  its  growth,  and 
so  justly  related  to  the  whole  that  we 
shall  escape  the  peril  of  the  illiberal  and 
uneducated  specialist. 

All  this  shall  be  placed  in  a  setting  of 
a  little  world  of  libraries,  laboratories, 
loan  funds,  fellowships,  mechanism,  and 
beauty,  and  the  whole  vitalized  and  spirit- 
ualized by  men  in  such  force  that  their 
spirits  shall  not  break  and  their  hopes 
shall  not  die.  We  do  not  need  many 
such  universities,  but  we  need  them 
strong  and  in  the  right  places.  The  mul- 
tiplication of  weakness  by  weakness  yields 
weakness  still.  The  South  needs  them 

95 


of  Virginia 


to  protect  its  real  reconstructive  era  from 
the  dangers  of  empiricism,  industrial 
dependence,  and  the  perils  that  beset  char- 
acter in  all  democracies.  Virginia  needs 
such  a  university  to  guarantee  that  edu- 
cational leadership  to  which  it  has  owed 
its  greatness  for  two  generations  and  to 
light  its  path  to  that  point  of  usefulness 
and  power  which  General  Lee  saw  in  the 
dark  days  when  he  said  simply:  "Let  us 
work  to  make  Virginia  great  again." 

The  building  of  such  a  national  uni- 
versity of  modern  type  in  the  South  is 
the  great  opportunity  to  benefit  the  repub- 
lic, now  offered  to  the  wisdom  of  States 
and  the  imagination  of  farseeing  men. 
There  are  in  the  South  a  score  of  col- 
leges of  good  equipments,  of  sound 
standards  and  traditions,  manned  by  ca- 
pable, devoted  men.  Indeed,  devotion 
and  sacrifice  are  the  distinguishing  marks 


in  tfte  3life  of  tfte  Ration 


of  these  colleges,  and  the  result  of  their 
culture  is  a  precious  quality  of  manhood. 
It  is  no  injustice  to  them  to  declare  that 
there  is  no  national  university  of  modern 
type,  amply  and  generously  equipped, 
between  the  Rio  Grande  and  the  Potomac. 
They  are  national  enough  in  spirit  and 
purpose,  and  this  University  has  just 
claim  to  be  called  the  most  national  of 
American  schools  in  a  large  sense,  but 
they  have  not  been  able  to  keep  pace 
with  the  amazing  expansion  of  the  field 
of  work  undertaken  by  the  University, 
for  good  reasons  clear  to  every  modern 
thoughtful  man.  This  will  not  always 
be  so.  The  power  necessary  to  trans- 
form the  University  into  a  fortress  and 
dynamo  of  conservation  and  enlight- 
enment is  being  won  from  forest,  and 
factory  and  farm,  and  is  undergoing  con- 
secration to  these  high  purposes  in  thou- 

97 


of  Virginia 


sands  of  tender  consciences  and  purpose- 
ful minds.  It  is  our  part  to  hasten  the 
day  when  this  power  shall  be  put  to 
work. 

The  absence  of  such  a  great,  national, 
amply  equipped  university  in  this  vast 
region  is  imparing  the  homogeneity  of 
the  nation.  It  is  delaying  the  entrance 
of  the  capable  homogeneous  South  into 
the  inheritance  of  the  modern  world.  It 
is  subtracting  from  the  present  sum  of 
national  energy  and  power  many  thou- 
sands of  the  best  educable  material  that 
ever  blessed  and  strengthened  any  coun- 
try. To  build  such  institutions  at  the 
right  places  in  the  Southern  States  is,  as 
I  have  said,  the  supreme  spiritual  and 
intellectual  achievement  of  our  time. 
There  is  a  presupposition  of  vast  power 
in  such  institutions.  America  spends 
thirty  millions  a  year  in  maintaining  them. 

93 


in  rt>e  3life  of  tfte  Ration 


Many  millions  a  year  are  given  for  their 
expansion.  The  States  of  the  Northwest 
Territory,  much  of  which  was  formerly 
Virginia,  expend  six  millions  yearly,  and 
upon  less  than  four  or  five  hundred  thou- 
sand a  year  one  cannot  be  maintained. 
Money  alone  cannot  make  such  a  univer- 
sity, but  vast  power  is  necessary,  and 
though  it  bear  the  image  and  superscrip- 
tion of  Caesar,  there  is  an  alchemy  of  con- 
secration in  our  laboratories  which  can 
transmute  money  into  moral  force.  Mere 
individual  genius,  even  of  Plato,  or  Abe- 
lard  or  Arnold  or  Hopkins,  cannot  make 
such  a  university,  though  God  pity  it  if 
it  have  not  such  quality  of  soul  some- 
where in  its  life.  Prestige  will  not  suffice, 
for  prestige  may  be  a  gentle  euphemism 
for  epitaph,  if  isolated  from  continuing 
power,  to  serve  a  widening  field. 

Holding   fast   to  all   of  good    that  we 

99 


€lje  Clnifcergitp  of  Virginia 


have,  let  us  discern  four  new  paths  of 
service  for  the  University  of  Virginia. 
First,  of  English  speaking  statesmen,  Mr. 
Jefferson  perceived  the  meaning  of  educa- 
tion as  an  influence  upon  national  as  dis- 
tinct from  individual  development,  and  for 
forty  years  his  mind  played  constantly 
around  three  lines  of  institutional  reform 
in  Virginia — elementary  instruction  for 
every  child,  in  order  to  guarantee  citizen- 
ship, to  elevate  economic  desire,  and  to 
increase  industrial  capacity;  secondary 
education,  or  more  education  for  those  fit 
for  it;  university  education,  or  training 
for  leadership. 

The  largest  social  task  of  this  univer- 
sity, co-operating  with  all  educational 
forces,  is  to  strive  for  the  accomplishment 
of  these  unrealized  ideals.  Not  only  in 
Virginia,  but  throughout  the  South  there 
is  enthusiasm,  growth  under  difficulties, 


in  tfte  Slife  of  tfte  Ration 


splendid  determination  and  progress  and 
individual  excellence,  but  our  educational 
systems  are  unorganized  and  bear  some- 
what the  relation  to  what  they  will  finally 
become  that  the  old  volunteer  fire  com- 
panies bear  to  the  organized  fire  depart- 
ment. Their  proper  co-ordination  will 
come  as  a  result  of  community  effort  and 
a  conception  of  educational  unity.  Edu- 
cation is  one  compact  interest  of  society, 
and  no  one  part  can  be  profitably  studied 
alone,  as  no  individual  can  be  studied 
isolated  from  his  fellows.  His  cadaver 
may  be  valuable  for  such  purposes,  but 
not  his  personality.  I  know  of  no  more 
fruitful  field  of  inquiry  than  that  which 
has  to  do  with  the  relation  of  part  to  part 
in  our  systems  of  education,  and  of  the 
intrinsic  relation  of  the  whole  to  State 
and  Church.  The  University  of  Virginia 
is  essentially  not  this  particular  City  of 


of  Virginia 


Light,  but  a  composite  institution,  in- 
cluding every  schoolhouse,  academy,  de- 
nominational college,  and  State  school  tied 
together  in  a  union  of  sympathy  and 
helpfulness,  and  it  somehow  must  become 
this  or  confess  failure. 

The  adoption  of  the  mill  tax  idea  as  a 
method  of  raising  revenue  to  insure  uni- 
fied and  stable  educational  growth  is  the 
contribution  of  the  Mississippi  Valley.  It 
is  the  result  of  the  teachings  of  Jefferson 
and  the  common  sense  of  pioneers  and 
State  builders.  I  commend  it  to  our  law- 
makers for  their  thoughtful  investigation, 
for  nowhere  have  the  dreams  of  Wash- 
ington and  the  hopes  of  Jefferson  ap- 
proached so  nearly  to  realization  as  in 
this  alert  and  unhindered  territory. 

We  should  cherish  the  hope  that  the 
time  will  come  when  the  higher  institu- 
tions of  the  State  will  be  united  in 


in  r(K  ilifr  of  tftc  Ration 


organic  union,  since  local  pride  arid 
enthusiasm  have  denied  us  physical 
unity.  Nor  should  the  reciprocal  obli- 
gations be  forgotten  that  exist  between 
the  State  and  the  private  and  denomi- 
national colleges,  chartered  by  the  State, 
protected  by  its  laws,  educating  one- 
third  of  its  youth.  We  should  welcome 
the  establishment  here  of  halls  and  dor- 
mitories controlled  by  them,  availing 
themselves  of  the  opportunities  of  the 
University,  and  if  this  be  impracti- 
cable, we  should  at  least  strive  without 
ceasing  to  banish  from  our  life  any  sem- 
blance of  intercollegiate  hostility.  Let 
co-operation  supplant  rivalry  in  the  serv- 
ice of  men.  This  problem  of  unifica- 
tion is  as  difficult  as  it  is  inviting.  The 
university  that  solves  the  problem  holds 
the  future.  The  first  forward  step  would 
be  the  establishment  here  of  a  school 

103 


ftmtoergitp  of  Virginia 


of  Education  of  such  power  that  its 
teachers  could  approach  this  and  other 
problems  of  educational  statesmanship 
with  insight  and  authority.  This  school 
should  comprise  not  only  the  philoso- 
pher, but  the  sociologist,  the  organizer, 
and  the  sympathetic  publicist. 

Our  distinctive  contribution  to  Ameri- 
can  life  has  been  political  leadership.  A 
necessary  condition  for  the  holding  of 
this  position  would  be  the  development 
here  of  a  great  school  complementary  to 
law,  embracing  the  studies  classified 
under  political  economy,  political  science, 
sociology,  and  history.  These  are  no 
longer  subordinate  studies.  They  are 
the  studies  that  enable  the  mind  to 
reach  results,  not  so  much  through 
obstructive  criticism  as  through  progres- 
sive understanding  of  the  soul  of  the 
time  in  which  it  lives,  and  through 


104 


in  tlje  Hife  of  tfte  Ration 


insight  into  conditions  unfamiliar  to  daily 
experience.  Men  trained  in  such  studies 
get  the  enlightenment  upon  which  wise 
social  action  must  be  based,  and  in 
them  lies  the  hope  of  advance  in  society. 
For  some  decades  the  intensest  expres- 
sion of  our  power  is  to  be  along  indus- 
trial and  scientific  directions.  The  appli- 
cation of  the  sciences  to  the  enrichment 
of  life  in  engineering,  in  agriculture,  in 
business,  in  manufacturing,  is  not  only  a 
movement  inevitable  to  the  national 
development,  but  is  also  a  vitalization 
and  emancipation  of  the  liberal  studies. 
In  the  past  five  years  the  growth  of 
engineering  students  over  those  enrolled 
in  the  courses  in  letters  and  languages 
has  been  one  hundred  per  cent.  This 
does  not  mean  materialism,  but  is  sim- 
ply an  expression  of  economic  need. 
Modern  competitive  living  needs  the 


105 


€fje  ttmtoer^itp  of  Bitginia 


trained  man,  not  alone  in  law  and 
medicine,  but  in  engineering  and  in  the 
great  arts  of  production  and  exchange. 
It  is  the  duty  of  society  to  master  the 
means  for  the  production  of  wealth  as  a 
form  of  independence  of  the  world's 
forces,  and  after  that  to  oppose  moral 
purpose  and  enlightened  conscience  to 
the  suggestions  of  greed  and  the  seek- 
ing of  fortune  for  fortune's  sake. 

Universities  that  have  a  clear  tradition 
are  rare  and  fortunate.  Our  clearest 
/tradition  is  the  tradition  of  culture  and 
fellowship  with  beauty  and  poetic  under- 
standing. It  is  not  a  tradition  to  lose  in 
a  world  where  business  is  king.  It  is  a 
morning  spirit  not  yet  numbed  by  sordid 
or  cynical  impulses — still  lit  with  spirit- 
ual charm  and  lifted  above  enervation 
and  self-seeking — a  stubborn  negation  of 
Wordsworth's  fear: 

"The  world  is  too  much  with  us,  soon  and  late; 
Getting  and  spending,  we  lay  waste  our  power." 
1 06 


in  the  Itifc  of  tl)c  Ration 


I  would  give  this  tradition  added  rich- 
ness by  putting  it  to  work  through  the 
establishment  here  of  a  nobly  planned 
school  of  English  Writing.  In  such  an 
air  as  this,  rich  in  life  and  hope  and 
ample  manhood,  there  is  room  for  a 
school  which  would  bring  men  together 
more  in  the  spirit  of  practical  artists  than 
of  critics  or  analysts ;  a  school  of  scholars 
and  masters,  working  together  like  good 
craftsmen,  learning  from  each  other ;  com- 
peting with  each  other,  producing,  offer- 
ing their  products  to  the  thought  of  the 
world,  and  giving  the  training  which  men 
of  creative  instinct  get  by  working  to- 
gether under  the  sharp  spur  of  life  and 
the  just  pride  of  accomplishment.  The 
power  to  use  one's  language  clearly  and 
persuasively  is  a  practical  gain,  alone 
worth  the  time  spent  in  college.  The 
power  to  use  it  as  an  expression  of  life 


107 


CJnifcer^itp  of  Virginia 


and  emotion  is  the  power  to  enter  through 
understanding  into  that  realm  of  feeling 
and  faith  where  dwell  love  and  liberty 
and  the  unseen  ideals  that  move  the 
race  more  than  law  or  logic.  Why 
should  not  a  university  provide  for  pro- 
ductive work  in  literature  on  the  same 
ample  plan  and  scope  with  which  it  pro- 
vides for  scientific  investigation  and  publi- 
cation? Will  not  citizenship  in  the  realm 
of  letters  come  soonest  to  him  who  seeks 
to  make  rather  than  to  him  who  seeks  to 
dissect  the  body  of  literature ;  to  him  who 
emphasizes  the  movement  of  spirit  above 
the  phenomena  of  language? 

Whether  the  University  of  Virginia 
shall  realize  its  great  destiny  rests  upon 
the  decision  of  the  Commonwealth  of 
Virginia,  whose  civic  life  it  has  ener- 
gized and  ennobled,  upon  the  will  of  its 
alumni,  whom  it  has  invested  with  cul- 

108 


in  tfte  3life  of  tfte  Ration 


tured  manhood,  and  upon  American  citi- 
zenship, whose  public  spirit  it  embodies. 
I  have  emphasized  everywhere  the  idea 
of  service  due  from  the  University  to 
the  State  and  I  shall  continue  this 
emphasis,  for  I  should  sin  against  the 
mighty  dead  if  I  did  not  bring  to  these 
brave  young  men  a  straightforward  mes- 
sage of  social  duty.  In  Ben  Hill's 
phrase,  this  shall  be  the  University  for 
Virginia  as  well  as  the  University  of 
Virginia.  Great  States  care  for  their 
universities,  believing  such  care  to  be 
a  mark  of  greatness  in  States.  I  believe 
that  this  State,  which  has  always  known 
how  to  act  broadly,  will  make  it  an 
axiom  of  its  legislative  life  to  cherish 
and  strengthen  its  chiefest  institution 
in  proportion  to  income  and  prosperity. 
The  University  calls  to  her  sons  with 
the  confidence  of  a  mother  for  their  con- 


109 


€t)e  ambcrsitn  of  Virginia 


structive  help,  and  they  will  heed  her 
call  as  they  have  heeded  every  call  of 
filial  love  and  public  duty.  She  offers  to 
men  of  sentiment  and  foresight  through- 
out the  republic  the  privilege  and  oppor- 
tunity of  an  incomparable  service.  An 
additional  annual  income  of  $100,000  is 
needed  here  immediately.  We  need  men 
here,  first  and  foremost — great  scholars 
and  teachers  to  reinforce  our  over-bur- 
dened corps — and  books  and  instru- 
ments and  buildings,  and  then  more  men. 
It  would  be  a  dull  and  senseless  spirit 
that  did  not  feel  the  sacred  meaning  of 
this  hour,  with  its  unspoken  suggestion 
of  human  living  and  human  dying,  of 
patient  striving,  and  of  dauntless  hope. 
There  is  no  despair  in  such  a  task.  There 
is  simply  gratitude  to  God  for  oppor- 
tunity and  prayer  to  God  for  strength. 
I  believe  in  the  essential  idealism  of  the 


in  tfte  life  of  tfte  Ration 


republic,  in  its  dependence  upon  knowl- 
edge and  training,  in  a  deep  and  heroic 
simplicity  which  lies  at  its  heart,  safe- 
guarding it  forever  from  the  tyranny  of 
mob  or  plutocrat.  Set  here  so  faithfully 
for  everlasting  service,  this  university 
seeks  its  share  of  the  nation's  growth 
and  its  portion  of  the  nation's  burden. 
Like  the  University  of  Berlin,  it  belongs 
to  the  short  list  of  institutions  which 
have  scattered  the  despair  and  lightened 
the  sorrows  of  a  great  people  in  a  time 
of  national  trial.  Shall  it  not,  like  the 
University  of  Leyden,  range  itself  also, 
in  the  justice  of  God,  among  the  great 
schools  of  national  rejoicing,  working  at 
the  tasks  and  solving  the  problems  of  an 
era  welded  into  unity  by  common  sacri- 
fice and  thrilling  with  the  prophecy  of 
boundless  growth  and  triumphant  peace? 
To  the  absent  ones  whose  thoughts 


€f)e  ftnibergitp  of  Virginia 


turn  hitherward  to-day,  for  love  of  Alma 
Mater  and  belief  in  her  ideals,  I  send 
the  message  of  her  unbroken  loyalty  to 
the  faith  that  the  scholar  should  be  a 
patriot  and  the  patriot  a  scholar,  and 
that  scholarly  patriotism,  exalting  coun- 
try above  self,  rich  in  social  knowledge 
and  sympathy,  unafraid  of  difficulty  and 
unashamed  of  sentiment,  is  the  noblest 
offering  universities  can  make  toward 
the  integrity  and  majesty  of  republican 
citizenship. 


in  tlK  llifc  of  rftr  Ration 


ACCOMPLISHMENT 


CJnitoergitp  of  Virginia 


in  ti)c  ffiife  of  tftc  |i>ation 


ACCOMPLISHMENT 

The  University  of  Virginia  was  conceived, 
founded,  and  organized  by  Thomas  Jefferson. 
It  was  established  by  the  Legislature  of  Virginia 
January  25,  1819,  and  opened  to  students  March 
7,  1825.  The  total  number  of  young  men  enrolled 
as  students  during  the  eighty  sessions  which  pre- 
ceded the  election  of  Dr.  Edwin  A.  Alderman  as 
its  first  President  in  June,  1904,  was  fifteen 
thousand  nine  hundred  and  twelve.  During  this 
period  three  hundred  and  sixty-one  students 
received  baccalaureate  degrees:  the  degree  of 
Master  of  Arts  was  conferred  upon  three  hundred 
and  ninety-three  candidates;  and  that  of  Doctor 
of  Philosophy  upon  thirty-five.  Degrees  in  En- 
gineering were  conferred  upon  ninety-nine  can- 
didates; the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Medicine  upon 
one  thousand  two  hundred  and  fifty-seven;  and 
that  of  Bachelor  of  Law  upon  one  thousand  three 
hundred  and  thirty-five.  No  honorary  degree 
has  ever  been  conferred  by  the  University. 

115 


Clnifcergitp  of  Virginia 


The  alumni  of  the  University  have  been  largely 
represented  in  excutive,  judiciary,  and  other 
services  of  the  National  Government,  and  in 
Congress,  as  well  as  in  State  governments  and 
legislatures.  Four  alumni  have  served  as  Cabinet 
officers;  one  as  a  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States ;  one  as  a  Justice  of  the  In- 
ternational Court  of  Appeals;  and  eight  as  Am- 
bassadors or  Foreign  Ministers.  Twenty-five 
have  been  members  of  the  Senate,  from  thirteen 
States,  and  eighty-six  have  been  members  of  the 
House  of  Representatives  from  fifteen  States, 
many  of  them  for  several  terms.  Seven  Senators 
and  twelve  Representatives  in  the  present  Con- 
gress are  alumni  of  the  University — a  larger  rep- 
resentation than  that  of  any  other  American 
university  save  one.  Seventeen  alumni  have  been 
Governors  in  ten  States,  and  forty-eight  Judges 
of  Supreme  Courts  in  seventeen  States,  many  of 
whom  are  now  in  office.  A  large  number  have 
served  or  are  serving  as  members  of  State  Legis- 
latures, Secretaries  of  State,  Attorneys  General, 
and  in  other  offices  of  trust  and  importance. 

116 


in  tfte  Hife  of  t&e  Ration 


Alumni  of  the  University  took  an  important 
part  in  the  formation  of  the  Confederate  govern- 
ment, and  a  still  more  prominent  part  in  the  Con- 
federate army  and  navy.  Five  alumni  were  mem- 
bers of  the  Confederate  Cabinet;  fourteen  were 
members  of  the  Provisional  Congress,  from  eight 
States;  nine  were  Senators,  from  seven  States, 
and  fourteen  were  Representatives,  from  seven 
States,  in  the  first  and  second  Permanent  Con- 
gresses. The  number  of  students  matriculated 
up  to  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  was  less  than  nine 
thousand;  of  these,  two  thousand  four  hundred 
and  eighty-one  (over  twenty-seven  per  cent.) 
served  in  the  field  or  at  sea ;  and  of  this  number, 
four  hundred  and  seventy-one  (nearly  one-fifth) 
died  in  service.  One  thousand  four  hundred  and 
eighty  alumni  (nearly  sixty  per  cent,  of  the  entire 
number  serving)  were  commissioned  as  officers 
of  various  grades,  among  whom  were  four 
major-generals,  twenty-one  brigadier  generals, 
and  sixty-seven  colonels,  from  ten  States. 

In  addition  to  the  large  number  of  alumni  who 
have  served  as  teachers  in  public  and  private  high 

117 


Uni\3cr0it>i  of  Virginia 


schools,  or  as  assistant  professors,  instructors,  or 
tutors  in  collegiate  institutions,  four  hundred  and 
eleven  alumni  have  occupied  chairs  in  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty-one  universities,  colleges,  and  pro- 
fessional schools,  located  in  thirty-three  States 
and  four  foreign  countries;  of  these,  one  hun- 
dred and  seventy-one  are  now  in  positions.  Sixty- 
four  alumni  have  been  made  presiding  officers  of 
fifty-one  institutions  located  in  nineteen  States. 
Alumni  of  the  University  have  held  chairs  in 
ninety-nine  institutions,  located  in  sixteen  South- 
ern States ;  of  these,  one  hundred  and  forty-one 
are  at  present  serving  in  sixty-six  institutions, 
located  in  fourteen  States,  including  nearly  all  of 
the  State  universities  and  technical  schools,  and 
the  leading  private  foundations  of  the  South. 
Alumni  have  held  chairs  in  fifty-seven  institu- 
tions located  in  seventeen  Northern  and  Western 
States;  of  these,  thirty  are  now  serving  in 
eighteen  institutions,  located  in  eight  States. 

While  the  University  has  no  Department  of 
Theology,  nor  any  denominational  affiliation, 
over  five  hundred  of  its  alumni  (over  three  per 

kit 


in  tJ>e  aife  of  tJje  Ration 


cent,  of  its  total  enrollment)  have  entered  the 
ministry,  chiefly  of  the  Episcopal,  Presbyterian, 
Baptist,  and  Methodist  churches ;  a  large  number 
of  these  have  served  or  are  serving  as  mission- 
aries in  all  parts  of  the  world.  Eleven  alumni 
have  been  made  bishops  of  the  Protestant  Episco- 
pal Church;  one  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church;  and  one  of  the  Reformed  Episcopal 
Church.  

Since  the  opening  of  the  University  to  students 
in  1825,  it  has  conferred  the  degree  of  Bachelor 
of  Law  upon  one  thousand  three  hundred  and 
thirty-five  of  its  graduates  (a  little  over  eight 
per  cent,  of  its  total  enrollment).  To  these  may 
with  propriety  be  added  a  still  larger  number  of 
its  matriculates  who,  without  completing  the  en- 
tire course  in  Law  at  the  University,  have  there 
obtained  the  larger  part  (if  not  the  whole)  of 
their  professional  education,  and  have  since  been 
in  successful  practice.  Alumni  in  the  Law  have 
attained  distinction  in  every  branch  of  the  profes- 
sion, and  have  been  prominent  in  public  life,  alike 
in  the  National  government  and  in  that  of  their 
respective  States. 


ftnifcergitp  of  Bitginia 


Without  taking  account  of  a  large  number  of 
practitioners  who  have  there  received  their  aca- 
demic (and  in  many  instances  the  larger  part  of 
their  professional)  training,  the  University  has 
conferred  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Medicine  upon 
one  thousand  two  hundred  and  fifty-seven  of  its 
students  (about  eight  per  cent,  of  the  total  enroll- 
ment). Representatives  of  this  body  have  been 
and  are  prominent  in  their  profession  in  nearly 
every  State  and  large  city  of  the  land.  They  com- 
prise a  larger  number  of  the  surgeons  of  the 
Army,  Navy,  and  Marine  Hospital  Service  of  the 
United  States  than  the  graduates  of  any  other 
medical  school,  forming  at  the  present  time  about 
twenty  per  cent,  of  the  National  Medical  Staff. 


Alumni  of  the  University  constitute  a  large 
proportion  of  those  American  writers  who,  espe- 
cially in  the  South,  have  attained  distinction  as 
authors  in  various  fields  of  literature,  or  as  edi- 
tors of  leading  periodicals  and  newspapers,  both 
religious  and  secular. 


in  tlje  aife  of  tfje  Ration 


Although  the  Department  of  Engineering  is  of 
comparatively  recent  organization,  its  graduates 
are  filling  positions  of  importance  throughout  the 
land;  the  same  may  be  said  of  graduates  of  the 
Schools  of  Chemistry  and  of  Geology. 


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